Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the amount of unpaid overtime worked by NHS staff in each of the last five years for which information is available.

The Department estimates the amount of unpaid overtime worked by National Health Service staff from self reported information in the NHS Staff Survey. The following table shows this data for each of the last five years.

We recognise and value the commitment of NHS staff in serving patients and the public. For staff employed under Agenda for Change (AfC) Section 3 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook gives a right to overtime payment or time off in lieu (TOIL).

The recently agreed NHS Employers framework agreement states “Employing organisations will work in partnership with trade unions to introduce local mechanisms to guarantee access to those annual leave and TOIL provisions set out in the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service handbook.” (paragraph 6.1). It is available at the following link:

http://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/2018-contract-refresh/framework-agreement

This work will be taken forward by the NHS Staff Council this year. It is envisaged the Council will examine if there are issues with staff being unable to take their annual leave or TOIL and look at guidance. The Handbook already contains a provision which states that if TOIL cannot be taken within three months it should be paid at overtime rates (Section 3 paragraph 5).