Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to make sure the instruction to ensure bank staff and subcontractors receive full pay when in self-isolation, as referred to by NHS England and NHS Improvement in a letter of 2 March 2020 to NHS Trust executives, is (a) funded, (b) monitored, and (c) enforced.

It is essential for infection control purposes that staff members who are told to self-isolate, do so as quickly as possible.

As such we have made sure that we have issued guidance to employers to ensure that all National Health Service staff, including bank workers and subcontracted staff who must be physically present at an NHS facility to fulfill their role, receive full pay should they need to self-isolate. Our guidance states that employers should use their usual methods for calculating full pay using agreed processes at a local level and in line with NHS terms and conditions.

NHS England and NHS Improvement wrote to NHS organisations and providers on 17 March 2020 with details of updates to financial arrangements during the 2020/21 financial year, stating that NHS providers and commissioners must carefully record the costs incurred in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and report actual costs incurred on a monthly basis.

We are continuing to review our guidance and working closely with trade unions to monitor and address any related concerns as and when they arise.