PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Junior Doctors: Pay (22 April 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an estimate of the cost to the public purse of awarding a pay rise to NHS junior doctors of (a) 5%, (b) 10%, (c) 15%, (d) 20%, (e) 25%, (f) 30% and (g) 35%.

Asked by:
Wes Streeting (Labour)

The below table shows the estimated costs of various average pay rises for junior doctors above the existing 2023/24 pay scales which included an average pay rise of 8.8% :

Average pay rise	Estimated cost in 2024/25
5%	£400,000,000
10%	£900,000,000
15%	£1,300,000,000
20%	£1,700,000,000
25%	£2,100,000,000
30%	£2,600,000,000
35%	£3,000,000,000

These are estimates of the expected costs if the pay rise were given in 2024/25. They cover recurrent increases to the substantive pay bill, including employer national insurance and pension contributions, as well as knock-on impacts such as agency price increases. The exact cost will vary depending on the workforce size and composition.

These estimates do not take into account any wider considerations of the impact on wider National Health Service and public sector pay.

Answered by:
Andrew Stephenson (Conservative)
24 May 2024