Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average cost to the NHS has been of employing a midwife on a full-time basis in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department’s estimates of the average cost to the National Health Service employing one midwife at a full-time equivalent (FTE) are set out in the following table in each of the last five years. These costs include total earnings, national insurance and pension contributions.
| Estimated Average Pay bill per FTE (Midwife) |
2013-14 | £46,053 |
2014-15 | £45,955 |
2015-16 | £46,096 |
2016-17 | £47,224 |
2017-18 | £47,381 |
Source: The Department’s Headline HCHS pay bill metrics, which are based primarily on earnings statistics published by NHS Digital, supplemented by employer pension and national insurance contributions estimates informed by unpublished and unvalidated data from the Electronic Staff Record Data Warehouse.
Pay bill per FTE levels do not depend solely on pay policy and pay awards. They also reflect patterns in those leaving and joining the workforce and the impact this has on average experience and pay levels, and they reflect patterns in non-basic earnings such as overtime which can fluctuate.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the amount of unpaid overtime worked by NHS staff in each of the last five years for which information is available.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department estimates the amount of unpaid overtime worked by National Health Service staff from self reported information in the NHS Staff Survey. The following table shows this data for each of the last five years.
Year | Percentage of staff working additional unpaid hours (%) | Up to 5 hours (%) | 6-10 hours (%) | 11 or more hours (%) |
2013 | 57.60 | 44 | 10 | 4 |
2014 | 59.22 | 44 | 12 | 5 |
2015 | 60.48 | 45 | 12 | 5 |
2016 | 59.07 | 45 | 10 | 4 |
2017 | 58.34 | 44 | 10 | 4 |
We recognise and value the commitment of NHS staff in serving patients and the public. For staff employed under Agenda for Change (AfC) Section 3 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook gives a right to overtime payment or time off in lieu (TOIL).
The recently agreed NHS Employers framework agreement states “Employing organisations will work in partnership with trade unions to introduce local mechanisms to guarantee access to those annual leave and TOIL provisions set out in the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service handbook.” (paragraph 6.1). It is available at the following link:
http://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/2018-contract-refresh/framework-agreement
This work will be taken forward by the NHS Staff Council this year. It is envisaged the Council will examine if there are issues with staff being unable to take their annual leave or TOIL and look at guidance. The Handbook already contains a provision which states that if TOIL cannot be taken within three months it should be paid at overtime rates (Section 3 paragraph 5).
Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many fines were levied on people who wrongly claimed free prescriptions in each year for which information is available; and how much money was raised for the public purse from those fines.
Answered by Steve Brine
The NHS Business Services Authority assumed responsibility for the Prescription Exemption Checking Service in September 2014. The following table shows numbers of Penalty Charge Notices issued each year since then for individuals who have claimed exemption from prescription charges, but that exemption could not be verified. It also shows the funds recovered from this activity.
Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) issued year | PCNs Issued | Value recovered |
2014 | 35,812 | £525,658.38 |
2015 | 408,478 | £7,308,289.64 |
2016 | 864,366 | £13,825,459.09 |
2017 | 1,052,430 | £18,180,971.12 |
2018 | 629,202 | £9,745,351.97 |
Notes:
- Date range covered September 2014 – 1 July 2018
- Value recovered can change overtime
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the amount of unpaid overtime worked by NHS staff in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Philip Dunne
This information is not collected centrally.
Information on unpaid additional hours worked by National Health Service staff is available from the NHS Staff Survey. Of those staff who completed the 2016 NHS Staff Survey, 59% reported working additional unpaid hours with 45% reporting up to five unpaid hours per week, 10% reporting 6-10 hours and 4% reporting 11 or more hours.
Full details of the NHS Staff Survey results for 2016 can be found at the following link:
http://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/Page/1006/Latest-Results/2016-Results/
We recognise and value the considerable commitment of NHS staff in serving patients and the public.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of the number of nursing posts vacant within the NHS in England.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The information is not available in the format requested.
Health Education England (HEE) provide estimates of staff shortages in National Health Service trusts as part of their Workforce Plan for England publication. Staff shortages as defined by HEE may be filled by nurses working in agency, bank or overtime, however no estimate of the extent to which this occurs is available.
HEE plan to publish the Workforce Plan for England 2017/18 in due course.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the average cost to the NHS of employing a paramedic in each of the last five years.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The following table shows the mean annual cost of employing ambulance paramedics, for the 12 month period July to June each year, 2011 to 2016.
| Average cost of employment by year |
July 2011 to June 2012 | £44,850 |
July 2012 to June 2013 | £45,127 |
July 2013 to June 2014 | £44,827 |
July 2014 to June 2015 | £45,501 |
July 2015 to June 2016 | £45,743 |
Source: NHS Digital, Provisional NHS Staff Earnings Estimates for earnings and unvalidated electronic staff record data for on costs
Paramedics earn on average about 42% of basic pay in other earnings. These include premium pay rates for working unsocial hours, pay for working overtime and other additional hours, and geographic allowances for staff employed in and around London described as High Cost Area Supplements.
On costs include employers pension contributions and employers national insurance and have been estimated at 20.5% of mean earnings.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the average cost to the NHS of employing one (a) nurse, (b) midwife, (c) doctor and (d) GP.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department’s estimates of the average cost to the National Health Service employing one nurse, midwife and doctor are set out in the table below. Costs for recruitment and training are not collated centrally.
Staff Group | Estimated Average Paybill per Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), 2015/16 |
Qualified nurses, midwives and health visitors | £42,300 |
Midwives | £45,900 |
All hospital and community health services (HCHS) doctors | £96,600 |
Notes:
Figures relate to 2015/16. Separate figures for qualified nurses are not available. Costs include employer national insurance and pension contributions but not other costs such as recruitment and training (This information is not collected centrally.) Doctors in General Practice are not included: the available cost information includes all practice costs, e.g. accommodation and other staff.
Pay bill per FTE levels do not depend solely on pay policy and pay awards. They also reflect patterns in those leaving and joining the workforce and the impact this has on average experience and pay levels, and they reflect patterns in non-basic earnings such as overtime which can fluctuate.
Source: Department of Health’s Headline HCHS Pay bill Metrics, which are based primarily on earnings statistics published by NHS Digital, supplemented by employer pension and national insurance contributions estimates informed by unpublished and unvalidated data from the Electronic Staff Record Data Warehouse.
The NHS does not employ general practitioners (GPs). The latest data from NHS Digital shows that the average income before tax in 2014/15 for a full time contractor GP in England was £103,800. For full time salaried GPs, the average income in England in 2014/15 was £53,700.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to Table 1 on page 5 of the NHS Protect document, Payroll fraud: guidance for prevention, detection and investigation, published in June 2015, if he will provide that information for each financial year since 2009-10.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The information for the period 1 June 2012 to 31 May 2014 included in the NHS Protect guidance ‘Payroll fraud: guidance for prevention, detection and investigation’ published in June 2015 was a bespoke piece of analysis for that document. For the financial years 2009-10 to 2013-14 comparative information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
From 1 April 2014 reports submitted to NHS Protect have been classified using a new fraud classification system. The information requested for the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16 is provided in the tables below.
2014-15
Payroll Category | Information reports (IRs) | % of info reports per key area | Turned into cases | % of IRs turned into cases |
Sickness (Working while sick) | 563 | 40.89% | 239 | 42.45% |
Timesheet and Overtime fraud | 478 | 34.71% | 214 | 44.77% |
Travel and Subsistence (Expenses and allowances) | 168 | 12.20% | 93 | 55.36% |
CV issues (Misrepresentation of qualifications and skills) | 168 | 12.20% | 54 | 32.14% |
Total | 1,377 | 100% | 600 | 43.68% |
2015-16
Payroll Category | Information reports (IRs) | % of info reports per key area | Turned into cases | % of IRs turned into cases |
Sickness (Working while sick) | 638 | 44.87% | 214 | 33.54% |
Timesheet and Overtime fraud | 478 | 33.61% | 166 | 34.72% |
Travel and Subsistence (Expenses and allowances) | 188 | 13.22% | 79 | 42.02% |
CV issues (Misrepresentation of qualifications and skills) | 118 | 8.30% | 56 | 47.46% |
Total | 1,422 | 100% | 515 | 39.44% |
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much overtime was paid to NHS staff in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2013-14.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The total overtime payments to National Health Service staff are estimated to have been:
- £380 million in 2015-16;
- £362 million in 2014-15; and
- £330 million in 2013-14
These estimates are based on pay information from the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR), which is the Human Resources and Payroll system for almost all trusts in England. These estimates do not include overtime payments to general practitioners or their staff.
ESR includes hundreds of payment type codes and payment figures are aggregated to high-level groupings using a mapping system. One of the high-level groupings is Overtime/Additional Duty Hours. The estimates provided in the answer above are based on this.
Overtime/Additional Duty Hours is just one way of buying extra staffing resource in the NHS. Shifts, absence and vacancies are also filled using additional activity payments (e.g. additional programmed activities and additional hours at plain time rates for part-time staff), bank contracts, and agency staffing.
Asked by: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)
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.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
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