Government does not need to accept pay review recommendations – Health Secretary

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has conceded ministers do not have to accept the recommendations of the pay review bodies amid growing scrutiny over how public sector wages are set.

Recent weeks have seen questions grow over how the pay review process operates, as ministers and trade unions clash over how independent the system is.

The Government, which ultimately decides the level of pay to be awarded to public sector workers covered by the pay review process, has continued to cite the independence of the process as it refuses to negotiate on the pay demands of nurses and ambulance workers.

But on Wednesday, as ambulance workers took to picket lines, the Health Secretary admitted that ministers do not have to accede to the recommendations from pay review bodies.

“When we haven’t accepted in full the recommendations of the independent pay review body programmes such as yourselves have been the first to criticise us,” Mr Barclay told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“When we don’t accept in full the recommendations, we’re criticised for doing so, on this occasion we have accepted them in full,” he said.

In recent weeks, as inflation remains over 10%, unions have adopted an increasingly critical attitude towards the process.

Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), has complained that the NHS pay review body is “set up by Government, paid by Government, appointed by Government and the parameters of the review are set by Government”.

“There’s nothing independent about the independent pay review body.”

On Tuesday, Rachel Harrison, a national secretary at the GMB trade union, made a similar criticism as she accused the Government of hiding behind the pay review body’s recommendations.

“We believe that what we actually need to see is true reform of the PRB process where the remit given doesn’t tie the PRB’s hands into existing budgets that have already been set. We’re asking the Secretary of State to come to the table.”

The GMB, representing ambulance workers, has said it will not engage with the process next year.

The Government has continued to back the pay-setting mechanism, with Mr Barclay on Wednesday arguing that there is now a need to “look forward” to next year’s pay process as he declined to review the current offer to striking workers.

Pay review body recommendations are not legally binding on the Government and ministers can generally choose to reject or partially ignore its advice, even if they are typically accepted.

Then-health secretary Jeremy Hunt in 2014 rejected recommendations on pay, describing the proposal as “unaffordable”.

More recently in July, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab told MPs that he would not be accepting a 3.5% pay rise for judges, as recommended by the senior salary review body (SSRB).

“I intend to reject the SSRB’s recommendation and propose a 3% pay award for all judicial office holders within the remit group for 2022/23.

“This ensures that the judiciary are not receiving a pay award in excess of what is on offer to court staff and senior civil servants,” Mr Raab said in a written statement.

Critics have also pointed out that the Government appoints members while also setting the remit or terms of reference for decisions on public sector wages.

Those members are drawn from a range of sectors, with the current NHS Pay Review Body chair Philippa Hird having a background in governance and human resources.

Others members come from management roles in the health and social care sector, while trade union, business and economist backgrounds are also represented.

In November, Mr Barclay told pay review body members to consider the NHS budget and the Government’s own inflation target.

The process is not usually so contentious, with the current level of inflation contributing to trade union frustration with the recommendations.

The system came under pressure during David Cameron’s government at the start of the last decade, as austerity saw a squeezing of budgets across the public sector.

Then, pay recommendations from the NHS body had to come in the context of a pay freeze for public sector workers.