Regional Pay (NHS)

Nick Harvey Excerpts

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir Nick Harvey (North Devon) (LD)]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State was right to make the point that the legal right and freedom of manoeuvre that enables the south-west trusts to do what they are doing is derived from legislation that was passed by the previous Government. In my view, however, he was wrong to depict what they are doing merely as offering premiums to assist with recruitment and retention. If that is all they were doing, frankly, we would not have spent this afternoon discussing the issue, and our postbags would not be filled with hundreds of letters from concerned constituents.

My hon. Friend the Member for Kingswood (Chris Skidmore) suggested that the whole thing had been scaremongered up by the unions and the Opposition, but I do not believe that is fair. If we look at the letters from trusts who are members of the consortium to hon. Members who have expressed concerns, they spell out that, far from offering a premium to “Agenda for Change”, they want to alter the terms in “Agenda for Change”, revisit sick pay rates and holiday pay rates, the amount of holiday entitlement, and the bonus for working unsociable hours. Understandably, that fills the work force with horror, and we should rightly oppose it. If we look at the leaked document from the consortium in its early days, we see that it knew it would run into a political and publicity storm. If it can get away with this, it will want to come back to the issue of regional pay.

My hon. and learned Friend—and neighbour—the Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr Cox) seemed to be under the impression that all this was happening because no national negotiations were taking place. That is simply incorrect: national negotiations are taking place, and I have talked to representatives of the trade unions that are part of the process. It is clear to me that they are showing flexibility, that they understand that there must be some change, and that they are willing to explore the possibility of change in some of the arrangements.

I appeal again to the trusts that make up the south-west consortium to await the conclusion of an orderly process that is perfectly capable of addressing some of their concerns. The alternative is seeing regional pay coming in by the back door and the breaking up of the national framework of our national health service.

My constituency is very similar to Torridge and West Devon. It has very low wages, some of the lowest in the country, but very high house prices. We will not continue to attract health professionals to our hospital—and we are already finding it difficult—if they know that coming to work in north Devon will mean worse conditions than they experience elsewhere. We will struggle to retain some of our best people if they know that going elsewhere will enable them to enjoy better pay and conditions and lower housing costs.

When the report from the pay review body is in the public domain, we must debate it again, but the message must go to my colleagues in Departments throughout Whitehall that there is no majority support for regional pay in the House, and that the idea must be given a decent burial.