Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the wage of NHS workers by 9.7 per cent.

The government hugely values and appreciates NHS staff and we have committed to give NHS workers a pay rise in 2023/24, asking the independent pay review bodies for recommendations on pay for staff in scope.

This year, over one million staff under the Agenda for Change contract, including nurses, have benefited from a pay rise of at least £1,400 backdated to April 2022. This is on top of the 3% pay rise they received last year, despite a wider public sector pay pause. The average basic pay for nurses has increased from around £35,600 as of March 2022 to around £37,000 and the basic pay for newly qualified nurses has increased by 5.5%, from £25,655 last year to £27,055. This follows the acceptance of last year’s recommendations in full which saw the lowest earners in the NHS receive a 9.3% pay rise.