Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to ensure that NHS pay awards are implemented on 1 April each year.

The Government is committed to improving the timing of the pay round as set out in the Chancellor’s speech on 29 July 2024. We recognise the importance of giving certainty on pay settlements as early as possible and are working to be able to announce pay uplifts sooner this round.

Having accepted the 2025/26 headline pay recommendations in full, the Government issued remit letters to pay review boards in July 2025 formally beginning the 2026/27 pay round. This is over two months earlier than last year and puts us on track to meet the stated ambition of my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to announce and implement pay uplifts as close to 1 April 2026 as possible.