Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the impact of inflation on the average salary of nurses in cash terms between November 2021 and November 2022.

The pay review body process is the established mechanism for determining pay uplifts in the public sector, outside of negotiating multi-year pay and contract reform deals.

Data on the average salary of nurses is not available for November 2022. The latest data available is for 12 months to June 2022. Table 1 shows that in the 12 months to June 2022 average basic pay per FTE increased by 4.3% compared with the previous 12 months while prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index increased by 9.4% over the same period. This data is using basic pay and does not include premiums or allowances such as unsociable hours or High Cost Area Supplements (HCAS). More on this data can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-staff-earnings-estimates/june-2022-provisional-statistics.

This does not include the 22/23 pay award. Nurses on the Agenda for Change pay scale received at least a £1,400 increase in basic pay (pro-rated for those working part time), with some nurses receiving up to £1,833.

Table 1: average nursing salary and inflation (CPI) from June 2021 to June 2022