Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data the Office for Veterans' Affairs holds on the number and proportion of veterans who have informed their GP that they served in the armed forces.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The information requested is not held centrally. Integrated care boards are encouraged to work with health providers in their area, including general practice (GP) surgeries, to ensure patient needs are met. The 2024/25 GP contract will introduce a requirement that GPs must have due regard for the requirements, needs, and circumstances of Armed Forces Veterans, when offering services and making onward referrals. In addition, the Veteran Friendly GP Practices, launched in 2018, is a voluntary scheme which enables GPs to deliver the best possible care and treatment for veterans and their families, including signposting and referrals to specialist services. As of March 2024, 85% of primary care networks have a veteran-friendly accredited GP in their area, and 83% of acute trusts have been accredited as veteran-aware.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what additional earnings above base pay are received by consultants by decile.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Relevant information is shown in the following table. This includes deciles of total National Health Service earnings and non-basic pay per person received by consultants for the 12 months ending December 2015. These figures use the earnings of only those staff who worked all 12 months in this period and will not include consultants’ private income.
Decile | Total non-basic pay | Total earnings |
1 | £2,987 | £76,700 |
2 | £7,011 | £87,675 |
3 | £12,194 | £95,849 |
4 | £17,540 | £103,212 |
5 | £22,881 | £110,180 |
6 | £28,942 | £117,916 |
7 | £36,531 | £126,950 |
8 | £47,066 | £139,056 |
9 | £64,759 | £158,935 |
10 | £481,287 | £577,147 |
The following table sets out mean annual NHS earnings and mean annual non-basic pay NHS earnings per person received by consultants for the 12 months ending December 2015.
Mean non-basic pay | Mean earnings |
£29,225 | £113,569 |
Source: NHS Digital, Provisional NHS Staff Earnings Estimates, Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). NHS Digital is the trading name for HSCIC.
Notes:
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, based on today's values, what the expected lifetime earnings are for a junior doctor starting in training in August 2016 if they become (a) a consultant, (b) a GP and (c) remain a junior doctor; and what assessment his Department has made of how those earnings compare to other (i) public and (ii) private sector professionals.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The career earnings of a doctor will depend on many factors and are therefore highly specific to individual circumstances. They will depend on decisions around gap years and career breaks, part-time working, the choice between general practice and other specialties, when they leave the National Health Service or retire and on the speed of progression through training. However, indications can be provided by constructing a hypothetical career based on reasonable assumptions in-line with current data.
It is estimated that assuming a 40 year full time career from Foundation Programme up to consultant or partner in General Practice, a junior doctor starting training in August 2016 could expect to earn around £4 million or an average of around £100,000 per year in 2016/17 prices.
Comparisons of pay across industries and sectors are notoriously difficult, capturing differences in pressures and working patterns is particularly complicated. Comparison of recent earnings growth for doctors compared with other high-earning occupations shows that doctors remain one of the very highest-earning occupations in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the new junior doctors' contract on the average pay of junior doctors.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The average pay of junior doctors will not change. The cost neutrality of the new contract means that the contract cannot in anyway be used to save money – it maintains the current spend for the current number of full-time equivalent doctors working the current average working week. The British Medical Association itself acknowledged this commitment and communicated it to its junior doctor members before the vote on the contract. Any growth in the junior doctor workforce/commitment will be funded from outside that envelope and the same average pay would apply to new juniors working the same working patterns.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make a comparative estimate of the level of proposed average pay under the new junior doctor's contract for a junior doctor working (a) part-time, (b) full-time and (c) as a full-time trainee.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Under the new contract, which is based on the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and pay for hours worked, full time trainees working at the same level of responsibility will receive the same basic pay and will be paid the same unsocial hours and weekend allowances depending on how many they work. Less than full time trainees working at the same level of responsibility will receive equal pay to full timers pro-rated to the number of hours that they work. Weekend and on-call allowances are also pro–rated.
Those trainees working at ST4 and above will continue to be paid under the terms of the old contract, under transitional arrangements.
At the British Medical Association’s request, it was agreed that there would be four levels of responsibility within the junior doctor training path for pay purposes.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make a comparative assessment of the level of proposed weekend pay under the new junior doctors' contract with weekend pay for (a) prison officers, (b) fire fighters, (c) police officers, (d) call centre workers, (e) consultants and (f) nurses, midwives and physios.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Junior doctors already work weekends, and they will continue to be fairly rewarded for work undertaken at the weekend using the weekend allowance proposed by the British Medical Association negotiators. Comparative rates are set out in the attached table.
Because of the allowance based approach to weekend working, the effective hourly rate juniors are paid will vary depending on how many hours they work over how many weekends. In almost all cases junior doctors will receive weekend pay better than other National Health Service professional staff.
A typical rota for a junior doctor involves an average of 6.5 hours a week being worked at weekends. (i.e. they work two long shifts of 13 hours every four weekends). This is split evenly over Saturdays and Sundays and includes night work.
For working those weekend hours the percentage hourly supplement across all the hours worked for different groups of NHS staff would be
- 66% for a junior doctor (37% for night work plus an additional 7.5% weekend allowance set as a percentage of basic pay)
- 56% for a band 3 Health Care Assistant (37% for Saturday, 74% for Sunday)
- 45% for a nurse (30% for Saturday, 60% for Sunday)
- 33% for a consultant
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make a comparative assessment of the level of the proposed night time premium under the new junior doctors' contract with the night time premium for (a) airline pilots, (b) fire fighters, (c) police officers, (d) consultants and (e) nurses, midwives and physios.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Under the new contract the night time premium proposed for junior doctors means that they will be paid a higher supplement rate than consultants and nurses in the National Health Service and significantly more than other public sector employees.
| Night Window | Payment |
Junior doctors | 9pm-7am or until the end of the night shift up to 10am | Time + 37% |
Consultants | 7pm-7am | 4 hour Programmed Activity is reduced to 3 hours, effectively time + 33% |
Nurses | 8pm-6am | Time + 30% |
Airline Pilots* | 1am-7am | Time + 14-17% for captain |
Police Officers* | 8pm-6am | Time + 10% |
Firefighters * | n/a | Shift duty covers shifts 24 hours, 7 days. No premia |
*Income Data Services study
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate how many consultants earn more than the Prime Minister.
Answered by Philip Dunne
It is estimated that 8,000 consultants earn more than £142,500. This figure relates to the earnings of consultants employed by the NHS Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) in England, and is based on NHS Earnings Estimates and Workforce Statistics published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).
Sources: HCHS Consultants earnings figures based on statistics published by the HSCIC, from NHS Electronic Staff Record data, in NHS Staff Earnings Estimates to December 2015. The NHS Electronic Staff Record is the HR and Payroll system used by almost all National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts in England. HCHS Consultant numbers published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre in NHS Workforce Statistics.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed new junior doctors' contract on reducing rota gaps.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The new contract is part of the solution to rota gaps. It contains protections that mean that safe working hours will be enforced and light will be shone on rota gaps by the Guardian of Safe Working Hours reporting to the Board of each trust. Where action is not taken, this will be escalated to the Care Quality Commission, the General Medical Council and Health Education England. These protections simply do not exist in the current contract. In terms of covering rota gaps, no junior doctor can be asked to work more than an average of 48 hours a week and cannot work more than an average of 56 hours a week if they opt out from the Working Time Directive. The new contract rules for instance on rest periods and consecutive night shifts also apply to any additional work done.
Asked by: Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed new junior doctors' contract on ensuring safe working hours.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The new contract includes stronger limits on working hours and patterns of work and a robust oversight mechanism to ensure that prompt action is taken if needed. This will be an integral part of how trusts meet their statutory obligations to keep staff and patients safe. Required action includes a review of work schedules to ensure safe working, payment for additional work done and fines where the limits in the contract are breached. There are no such protections under the current contract. For instance, at present, junior doctors can be asked to work up to 91 hours a week, up to seven night shifts in a row and every weekend under the current contract. The Guardian of Safe Working Hours will be tasked with ensuring that rotas reflect the hours that juniors work and they are within the new contractual limits.
These limits under the new contract are a maximum of 72 hours per week (compared to 91 currently), and the limit on average weekly hours will remain 48 hours (and be limited to 56 hours where a doctor opts out of the Working Time Regulations).