Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed new contract for junior doctors on (1) their average salary and the number of doctors who will be financially disadvantaged, (2) the number of hours they will be expected to work to receive overtime benefits, (3) the number of hours per week they will be expected to work, and (4) the overall levels of patient care.

On 4 November, the Government published a firm offer for a new contract published by NHS Employers alongside a new calculator that offers specific information on how the new contract will impact doctors’ salary. On the same day, I issued a Written Ministerial Statement (HLWS282) in Parliament and the Secretary of State wrote directly to all junior doctors. The Government guaranteed that under the new contract:

‒ average pay will be maintained, and that the pay of all junior doctors working safe hours in the transition to the new contract would be protected and those junior doctors who could complete their training within four years will continue to be paid based on the existing contract. We want the British Medical Association to work with us on the detail and the Secretary of State for Health will be setting out the details of the Government’s offer to junior doctors in the coming days;

‒ basic pay will reflect a 40 hour week, and planned hours worked on top of this (up to a maximum of eight hours) will be paid proportionately i.e at the standard rate for the time of day worked;

‒ there will be a mutual contractual obligation on employers and trainees to respect the following limits on working hours:

o A maximum of 48 weekly hours on average (extended, but still limited, to 56 hours a week on average for those trainees who choose to opt- out of the Working Time Regulations);

o New maximum of 72 hours in any consecutive seven day period (lower than the 91 hours possible within average weekly hours of 48);

o No rostered shift to exceed 13 hours (excluding overnight on-call periods); and

o A new limit of no more than five consecutive long shifts (i.e. more than 10 hours); no more than four consecutive night shifts (where at least three hours fall between 11pm and 6am); and no more than seven consecutive days and nights on-call.

‒ introduce a safer, fairer contract for junior doctors that will help improve their training experience to better support patient care every day of the week.

The published contract offer to junior doctors and calculator is attached and can be found at:

http://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/need-to-know/junior-doctors-contract