Junior Doctors Contracts

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

Can the Secretary of State clarify something in his statement for me? He says that “those working one in four Saturdays or more will receive a pay premium of 30%. That is higher on average than that available to nurses, midwives, paramedics and most other clinical staff”. The staff he cites will be employed on bands 4 to 9 under “Agenda for Change” terms and conditions. If they work Saturdays, they receive plain time plus 30% for working then, so can the Secretary of State tell me how he has calculated an average? I do not understand his mathematics.

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to do that. The contract that we are going to implement gives junior doctors who work more than one in four Saturdays—so one in three Saturdays —a higher premium of 50%, so when taken on average, it is a higher premium for working on a Saturday.