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Chancellor must fund NHS staff pay rises, NHS England and NHS Improvement bosses tell MPs

Why must Exchequer pay for NHS staff pay rises?

NHS England and NHS Improvement heads Simon Stevens and Jim Mackey have told MPs that increases in health service staff pay must be paid for and cannot be funded from savings.

The government will need to provide extra cash following the lifting of the long-standing cap on public sector pay, the pair told the Commons Health Select Committee this week.

Earlier in the week, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the 1% pay cap had been scrapped because it was no longer sustainable, but future increases would be linked to productivity.

However, Mr Mackey told the committee it was hard to imagine how an increase be funded internally. The NHS had already delivered ‘serious levels of efficiency’.

Mr Stevens said that decisions announced on Budget day (22 November) would determine the shape of the NHS next year and the year after.

  • Chancellor Philip Hammond has warned MPs of the Commons Treasury Committee that spending on customs borders for the post-Brexit era will reduce the finance available for health services and social care

Further information

Health Service Journal: More funding needed to lift pay cap, warn Stevens and Mackey

Parliamentlive.tv: Health Committee Tuesday 10 October 2017: the work of NHS England and NHS Improvement

Parliamentlive.tv: Treasury Committee Wednesday 11 October 2017: the work of the Chancellor of the Exchequer

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