Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to evaluate the potential effect on the gender pay gap in medicine of the Government’s decision not to include (a) consultants and (b) specialist and associate speciality doctors in the NHS shared parental leave entitlement implemented in April 2019.

The shared parental leave arrangements introduced in April 2019 were part of the Agenda for Change pay and contract reform agreement and enacted via changes to the National Health Service Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook.

The provisions were extended to doctors and dentists in training, by virtue of the fact that their contractual arrangements mirror certain non-pay schedules from the NHS Handbook.

The current terms and conditions for consultants and specialty and associate specialist (SAS) doctors do not share these same schedules and therefore the changes do not automatically apply to these staff.

We firmly believe that all members of NHS staff should be treated equally. Established routes for contractual changes are via NHS Employers. Medical trades unions have been invited by NHS Employers to adopt the same non-pay schedules from the NHS Handbook for consultant and SAS doctors as have already been adopted by doctors and dentists in training, including those relating to shared parental leave.

An evaluation on the potential effect on the gender pay gap in medicine of not including consultants and specialty and associate specialist doctors in the NHS shared parental leave entitlement has not been planned.

The Department has commissioned an independent review into the gender pay gap in medicine, chaired by Professor Dame Jane Dacre. The review, which commenced in April 2018, is currently examining qualitative and quantitative evidence which will help identify the impact of cultural, practical and psychological issues that contribute to the gender pay gap in medicine.

The evidence collected and examined will go on to produce a series of implementable recommendations for publication in September 2019.