Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Written Statement of 16 July 2015, HCWS114, on NHS Remuneration: Doctors and Dentists, by how much he expects the cost of hospital consultants' pay to increase in each year to 2020.

The pay of hospital consultants is subject to wider public sector pay policy and the distribution of any pay award within the National Health Service workforce. The summer budget committed to fund public sector workforces for a pay award of an average of 1% for four years from 2016-17 onwards.

Pay uplifts for most NHS staff are determined by the government and informed by recommendations of the independent Pay Review Bodies (PRBs). The Review Body for Doctors’ and Dentists’ provides recommendations on consultants’ pay. The Department intends to seek the PRB’s recommendations on how to distribute the award within the NHS workforce, including to consultants.