Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure parity of pay between staff employed by (a) independent sector providers of NHS services and (b) the NHS.

National Health Service staff pay is set by the Government and usually informed by recommendations made by pay review bodies (PRBs). The PRBs are independent advisory bodies made up of industry experts who carefully consider evidence submitted to them by a range of stakeholders, including the Government and trade unions, to make recommendations for headline pay awards and on related matters.

PRBs make recommendations to the Prime Minister and ministers for most staff working in the NHS. The PRBs do not advise on the pay or terms and conditions for staff employed by independent sector providers of NHS services such as social enterprises.

Independent organisations, such as social enterprises, are free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment. This includes the pay scales that they use and the provision of any non-consolidated pay awards.

It is for them to determine what is affordable within the financial model they operate and how to recoup any additional costs they face.