Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the agreement in the former Nurses and Midwives Whitley Council on increased pay for nurses caring for persons with viral haemorrhagic diseases such as Marburg fever and ebola is still in force.

The Whitley Council allowance for “nursing patients with infectious communicable diseases” ended when Agenda for Change (AfC) started in December 2004.

This is because AfC pay bands are related to the National Health Service job evaluation scheme. AfC was designed to ensure equal pay for staff carrying out work rated as ‘equivalent’ or ‘of equal value’. Factors which determined the need for Whitley allowances are measured in AfC by job evaluation. This determines the pay band which feeds through to pay.

Decisions relating to the banding of NHS staff, including nurses and midwives, are matters for the NHS organisation concerned as the employer. They are best placed to determine the content of individual jobs.