Lord Clark of Windermere
Main Page: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Clark of Windermere's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(7 years ago)
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Lord O’Shaughnessy
The noble Lord waits patiently. I pay tribute to the quality of the report and we have already accepted some of the ideas set out in it. Now that the Budget is over and the Treasury can turn its mind to additional things, we will be responding to the report very soon.
Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)
My Lords, in his Budget Statement today, the Chancellor referred to the fact that he was establishing a working party of the department and the unions to look at salaries in the NHS, but he was a bit vague when it came to the funding of the outcome. Can the Minister give an assurance that the Government will fund whatever is agreed by the department?
Lord O’Shaughnessy
The Chancellor has confirmed that he will fund an Agenda for Change, as it is known, pay deal on the condition that the pay award enables improved NHS productivity and is justified on recruitment and retention grounds.