Junior doctors’ leaders agree 22.3% pay deal over two years

Junior doctors’ leaders in England have agreed a new pay deal with the government, which could lead to their wages rising by 22.3% over two years.

The agreement comes after 44 days of strikes since junior doctors first took industrial action in March 2023 in pursuit of a 35% pay rise. Stoppages by staff across the NHS since December 2022 have led to the postponement of 1.5m appointments, procedures and operations at an estimated cost of more than £3bn.

The British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctors committee has accepted an offer of an average rise of 22.3% over 2023-24 and 2024-25, the Guardian understands.

During a meeting on Saturday, the committee agreed to put the offer to its members, according to a source. If accepted, it will end the industrial action. Tens of thousands of members will now vote on the deal.

If accepted, the offer will deliver an additional pay rise of between 3.71% and 5.05%, averaging 4.05%, on top of the existing 8.8% average pay award for 2023-24. This will be backdated to April 2023.

Ministers are also accepting the recommendations of the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration for 2024-25. It will uplift each part of the pay scale by 6%, plus £1,000 on a consolidated basis, averaging an increase of more than 8%. This will be backdated to April 2024.

It means a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see their base pay rise to £36,600, compared with about £32,400 before the offer was made, the government said. A full-time doctor entering specialty training will see their basic pay increase to £49,900 from about £43,900 before the deal was struck.

Junior doctors have said their pay has been cut by more than a quarter over the past 15 years and have called for a 35% increase.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has previously said he would not meet the demand for 35%, saying that if he gave in then “any trade union worth their salt” would come back the following year with the same request.

The breakthrough in talks came on Friday, the Guardian understands. It followed a series of intensive meetings between Streeting, government officials and Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the junior doctors’ committee.

The sudden nature of the deal marked a lightning-quick conclusion to the 20-month dispute over pay. The first face-to-face talks between Trivedi, Laurenson and Streeting took place just 20 days ago, on 9 July.

In a joint statement, Trivedi and Laurenson said: “It should never have taken so long to get here, but this offer shows what can be achieved when both parties enter negotiations in a constructive spirit.

“This offer does not go all the way to restoring the pay lost by junior doctors over the last decade and a half. However, we have always said that we did not expect to get there in one go. This offer, combined with the recommendation of the pay review body today, changes the current trajectory of our pay, even though there is further to go yet.”

​The pair added: “We are recommending that members vote for the deal. We believe that this is the best offer available at this moment in time and that the inclusion of the additional reforms make the package a good step forward for our profession, acknowledging there is still more work to be done in the future.”

Streeting said he was delighted to have agreed an offer to end the industrial action that had caused “untold misery” to patients and staff.

“Everyone agrees we can’t have more disruption, more cancelled appointments, which is why my priority from day one has been to end this dispute,” he added.

“This has been a tough negotiation, but we have worked rapidly to reach a fair offer. I have been honest about the terrible economic inheritance left for this government, while the junior doctors committee has been clear that nothing less than the offer on the table will bring these strikes to an end.”

The agreement was fair to junior doctors, to patients and to the NHS, Streeting said. “It also represents an opportunity to truly reset relationships so we can begin working together to bring waiting lists down and fix the broken NHS.”

Dr Annie Williamson, a research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, a charity, described the development as “brilliant” news, adding: “An end to strikes is a crucial first step to getting the NHS back on track.”