Thank you for contacting me about NHS pay.

I recognise that staff morale is vital to maintaining staff commitment to NHS services.

I fully support the mission to make the NHS the safest, highest quality healthcare system in the world. There are over 14,000 more doctors and over 13,000 more nurses on our wards in the past decade.

How the NHS values and retains its staff is critical and a deal was agreed in 2018 to ensure a 6.5 per cent pay rise for over one million NHS workers on Agenda for Change contracts over three years.  

Ministers set aside £800 million to support the deal for 2018/19, and the Government’s long term funding settlement for the NHS, which will provide increased funding of £33.9 billion per year by 2023/24, is funding the pay rise over the remaining two years. Those on the lowest salaries in the NHS are seeing the largest proportionate pay rises: the lowest NHS starting salary has increased year on year from £15,404 to £18,005 in 2020/2021. Many nurses and healthcare assistants are enjoying pay increases of at least 2.5 per cent.  

NHS staff are playing an integral part of the national effort to combat coronavirus - and we owe them a great deal of gratitude for all that they do. The Government is committed to supporting all staff now and in the future. Its support for frontline staff predates this unprecedented challenge. In addition to the 6.5 per cent pay rise over the three years, the starting salary for newly qualified nurses has also increased by more than 12 per cent and the Government has introduced a nurses' bursary which provides at least £5,000 of additional support to nursing students.

The fight against coronavirus is a national effort, and the Government is committed to giving NHS staff the additional support they need throughout it.

Thank you again for contacting me.