Health secretary Steve Barclay is yet to file evidence to the pay review body for NHS doctors and dentists despite the organisation warning him about being late 10 days ago and highlighting that the process was being “compromised” as a result.
The Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) sent a letter to Barclay on 1 February urging him to respond, after he originally called for the process to be sped up and returned to its usual schedule.
At the time Barclay (pictured) was already three weeks late and was warned his lack of response was holding up the process and risking practitioners receiving pay increases for the 2023-24 financial year late.
It is now almost exactly a month after the original deadline of 11 January.
The DDRB told Health & Protection that since the letter was sent there had been no word from Barclay or the Department for Health & Social Care (DHSC).
“Governments across the UK have written to DDRB asking for pay recommendations for 2023/24, which DDRB is in the process of responding to. The DDRB has yet to receive evidence from DHSC,” the organisation said.
The DHSC did not respond to Health & Protection when asked when it would be filing evidence to the board and why its submission had been delayed.
The pay review process has been proving contentious, particularly with the industrial dispute ongoing across the NHS in England as NHS workers are taking strike action following years of cost-of-living pay cuts.
The British Medical Association and British Dental Association are now calling for the process to be full separated from politicians, arguing the Conservative government has been interfering and imposing public sector pay freezes and pay caps.
They also highlighted repeated delays in submitting evidence by ministers which have led to pay reviews being implemented long into the relevant year.
Barclay wanted expedited process
Last week the DDRB chairman Christopher Pilgrim set out his concerns over the delay of the DHSC’s written evidence submission for the 2023 pay round.
He noted that Barclay had previously said it was important the timetable was brought back to normal, and that he was hoping to expedite the process as much as possible this year, and that he would “welcome receiving the report” in April 2023.
Therefore, the DDRB set a deadline for written evidence of 11 January.
“Almost all parties submitted their written evidence by or shortly after this date,” Pilgrim wrote.
“However, it is now three weeks since that deadline, and we have still yet to receive written evidence from your department. We have also yet to receive a clear indication of when your written evidence will be forthcoming.”
‘Programme will be compromised’
Pilgrim added that he was “increasingly concerned” that delays to written evidence would affect when the body could submit its report and recommendations, and warned Barclay was compromising the process.
“We are now at the point where our programme of oral evidence will be compromised by the continued absence of written evidence from you,” he wrote.
“Sessions with some parties, including with your officials and ministerial colleagues, face being delayed.
“This will lead to our evidence-led process concluding later than was planned, and therefore to delays in the submission of our report to you and the other governments.
“Ultimately, hard-working members of our remit group may receive their pay uplift for 2023-24 later as a result of this.”
He concluded by urging Barclay “to submit evidence as soon as possible and without further delay”.