Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment was made prior to the implementation of the junior doctors' contract in 2016 of the additional financial and administrative cost associated with (a) pay protection, (b) additional hours payments, (c) guardian fines, (d) guardian of safe working hours role and (e) exception reporting management.

The contract will be recurrently cost-neutral with the exception of additional employer pension contributions arising from the increase in basic pay that was agreed with the British Medical Association as a condition for them entering negotiations in 2013 and was honoured by the Government. This is expected to rise to around £25 million per annum recurrently at the end of transition (circa 0.6% of total contract value).

In addition, there are limited non-recurrent costs of pay protection during transition. Upfront assessments of these costs are uncertain.

Additional hours payments and any fines reflect additional work carried out and are therefore outside the cost neutral funding envelope and will depend on how trusts manage juniors locally. Exception reporting is managed through rota management software. The role of the Guardian of safe working typically takes up a portion of the time of one consultant in each trust. This is seen as an investment in improving safe working for trainees.