Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of reductions in (a) overtime pay for full-time nurses working additional hours, (b) bank shift rates and (c) pay rates for unfilled shifts by NHS trusts on the (i) morale and (ii) retention of NHS nursing staff.

These specific assessments have not been made. The national provisions for the payment of unsocial hours premia and overtime are set out in the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. These provisions are specific to Agenda for Change (AfC) staff, which includes nurses. Overtime payments for substantive AfC staff on national contracts in England can only be paid to individuals once they have worked more than 37.5 hours per week. The NHS Staff Council is responsible for maintaining the handbook, and we are not aware of any current discussions around reducing overtime rates.

Where an additional agreement exists between staff and their employing organisation on payment of any additional hours, including hours worked in excess of 37.5 hours per week, for example via a bank contract, then this is considered a local matter.

National Health Service bank contracts are local contracts, the terms of which the employer has discretion over. The expectation is that the terms offered under a bank contract are agreed in partnership between employers and trade unions via local negotiating committees.

The Department does not hold information on locally negotiated arrangements that individual NHS organisations offer as incentives to cover staff shortages.

It is the responsibility of local organisations to ensure they have the right numbers of staff with the right skills to deliver services, supported by guidelines by national and professional bodies, including the management of any staff shortages.