Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with private contractors working in the NHS on paying staff the same rates as equivalent NHS staff.

There have been no specific discussions on this with private contractors working in the National Health Service.

Independent organisations commissioned by the NHS in England, such as general practices or social enterprises, are free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment, including the pay scales that they use. It is for them to determine what is affordable within the financial model they operate.