Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to provide doctors with a plan to improve (a) pay for NHS doctors and (b) job security for NHS doctors.

The Government accepted the headline pay recommendations for National Health Service doctors made by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Renumeration (DDRB) for 2025/26. Consultant and Specialist and Specialty doctors received pay uplifts above forecast inflation of 4% and resident doctors received 4% plus £750. Resident doctors have received the highest pay uplift in the public sector over the past two years, with pay uplifts amounting to 28.9% over three years. While the Government has been clear that it cannot go further on pay this year, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has met with the British Medical Association (BMA) to discuss their priorities and is committed to improving the working lives of all NHS staff.

The Government has taken steps to accelerate the pay setting process for this year to ensure that uplifts are made in a timely manner. To achieve this, we remitted the DDRB on 22 July and submitted written evidence to them on 30 October. Written evidence was submitted a month earlier than last year, which means we are still on track for pay uplifts to go into pay packets earlier than in previous years.

In acknowledgement of doctors’ concerns about jobs and access to training places, the Government made an offer to BMA’s Resident Doctors Committee to double the previously announced increase in specialty training places in the 10-Year Health Plan to 2,000, bringing 1,000 of these forward to next year, to create an alternative training pathway and take steps to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates and doctors with significant NHS experience for specialty posts. On top of this commitment, NHS England has already made changes to the specialty training application process this year to reduce competition and support UK graduates.