Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the real terms change in salary has been, cumulatively by financial year up to and including 2015-16, for a member of NHS staff who was at the top of their payscale in 2009-10 measured by (a) retail price index and (b) consumer price index.

The real terms change in the salary of a member of National Health Service staff at the top of their pay band in 2009/10 by 2015/16 will depend on a number of factors including, whether they were promoted, whether they moved areas and received or lost geographical allowances, their working hours and the level of unsocial hours pay as well as annual increases in pay scales.

The actual salary experience of NHS staff who were in post between 2010 and 2015 was examined through a recent longitudinal study by the Department presented in the Department’s evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body and Doctors and Dentist Review Body. This showed that half of Agenda for Change employees employed in both 2010 and 2015 benefitted from double figure increases in earnings over that five year period, equating to at least 2.2% to 2.9% annually, depending on staff group. Adjusting for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) gives an average increase of -0.2% to 0.5% per year. The same study showed that the total earnings of Hospital and Community Health Service doctors employed in both 2010 and 2015 increased by an average of 3.3% per year between 2010 and 2015, 0.9% per year when adjusted for CPI.