Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes in the level of staff overtime pay rates in emergency departments on (a) the quality of patient care and (b) the retention of senior clinical staff.

The Department has not made this specific assessment. Where national rates for overtime are applicable in England, these are set out in the national terms and conditions, and no recent changes have been made to these provisions, nor are there planned to be. Where pay for additional work is set at a local level or where local providers agree overtime rates that are different to those in the national terms and conditions, this would be considered a local matter.