Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer to Questions 256286 and 259982 on NHS: Public Appointments, what the longest period of time is for which NHS posts with salaries above £142,000 are awaiting ministerial sign-off by (a) his Department and (b) HM Treasury.

HM Treasury sets the threshold at which ministerial approval is required for ministerial appointments. The threshold was raised from £142,500 per annum to £150,000 per annum in January 2018.

National Health Service posts are not ‘ministerial appointments’ and are therefore not subject to the approvals process set by HM Treasury. However, in 2015 the then Secretary of State set out his policy on taking forward senior pay in the NHS which included the requirement for NHS trusts to seek ministerial approval and NHS foundation trusts and clinical commissioning groups to seek ministerial comment for senior executive pay over the same pay threshold set by HM Treasury.

NHS organisations are not required to seek Departmental approval or comment on salaries of less than £150,000.

As at 1 July, the longest period of time for which the Department have been aware of a proposed NHS post with a salary above £150,000 dates back to 13 March 2019. The case has not yet been presented to Ministers for approval or comment as further information has been sought from the Trust to support the case. This has not yet been received and therefore the case has not yet been presented to Ministers.