Resident doctors

Last year Resident Doctors in Scotland received a cumulative pay uplift of 11%.  The pay deal reached for 2024/5 delivered a further step towards restoring Resident doctor pay, building on the previous 12.4% pay uplift achieved in 2023/24 which had already begun to reverse the trend of pay erosion.

Figure 1 - FY doctor pay

Figure 1 – Resident doctor pay erosion.

This shows that the above inflation pay uplifts of 2023/24 and 2024/25 have begun to reverse the real terms pay decline and have almost halved levels of pay erosion when compared to 2008/09 levels.  This still means that significant progress is still required; for FY resident doctors, shown in the figure above, pay erosion remains at -15.3% when compared to 2008/09 levels.

Evidence

The pay and contract agreement BMA SRDC (Scottish resident doctors committee) reached with the Scottish Government for 2023/24 included direct pay negotiations each year for 2024/25-2026/27.

Direct pay negotiations with the Scottish Government have proven to be a viable path towards our aims of pay restoration for resident doctors in Scotland. In future direct negotiations with the Scottish Government, BMA Scottish Resident doctors committee will look to resolve the significant remaining pay erosion Resident doctors have experienced since 2008/09, within the remaining two years of the agreement – by 2026/27. This is the stated shared aim of the BMA and the Scottish Government.

We have prepared more detailed information for our members on resident doctor pay in Scotland.

Consultants and SAS doctors

In 2024 the Scottish Consultants Committee and Scottish SAS Committee did not participate in the DDRB process and did not submit evidence as in previous years. Instead, SCC and SSASC entered direct pay talks with the Scottish Government to deliver improved pay for these doctors.
The direct pay negotiations resulted in a pay deal for consultants that consisted of a total investment of £124.9m (11%) in pay, made up of:

• an uplift of 10.5% to all pay points on the pay scale
• increase in the value of discretionary points from £3,204 to £3,600 (12.35%)

For Specialty Doctors the uplift was the DDRB recommendation of 6%, with a higher pay uplift for Specialists than the DDRB recommendation which brought Specialist pay in line with payscales in the other nations.

Both the consultant and SAS pay deals included a requirement for the BMA Scottish Consultants and SAS Committees to participate in the DDRB process for the 2025/26 pay round.  

Figure 2 - Consultant pay

This year’s pay uplift is a substantial real terms improvement in pay and accelerated progress towards pay restoration for consultants. However, pay erosion for consultants in Scotland remains considerable at -22.7% compared to 2008/09.  Future year pay uplifts will need to match 2024/25 to deliver the BMA’s policy of achieving full pay restoration by 2027/28.

Figures 2 and 3

Consultant and SAS doctor pay erosion. Consultant and SAS doctors have suffered considerable pay erosion since 2008/09.

Figure 3 - SAS pay erosion

The BMA UK submission calls for a significantly above inflation pay uplift, in RPI terms, to restore doctor pay to 2008/09 levels

 BMA Scotland previously did not intend to make a separate ask of the DDRB this year.  However, because Scottish Government offered a less favourable pay uplift to SAS doctors for 2024/25 compared to other employed doctors, we are calling for a greater uplift for SAS doctors, as many now have the highest levels of pay erosion amongst all doctors in Scotland.

General practitioners

In 2024/25, contractor (partner) GPs and salaried GPs should have received an intended pay uplift of 6% following the recommendations of the DDRB. GP contractor pay requires their practice expenses to be sufficient for the full pay uplift to received. In 2022/23 and 2023/24, Scottish Government uplifts were insufficient to cover the inflationary costs of GP practices and need to compete with Agenda for Change pay awards for employed staff. The cumulative cost of this shortfall was calculated to be £13.6m in 2024/25. Following pressure from the BMA, Scottish Government belatedly announced that £13.6m in additional funding would be required. Of this, £9.6m will go into the Global Sum and Income and Expenses Guarantee on a permanent basis while £4m will be allocated to practices this year, but is intended to go to Boards in future years to fund uplifts to Enhanced Services.

The most recently available information on GP pay for 2022/23 makes clear the impact that underfunding the GP uplift had that year. Despite a DDRB recommended pay increase of 4.5% for that year, GP contractor earnings grew by just 0.4% - a significant real-terms cut in a period of high inflation. The gap between GP contractor actual pay and inflation adjusted pay is now considerable and expected to widen substantially in future years unless pay and contract uplifts are considerably increased.

Figure 4 - GP contractor earnings

Figure 6 - Salaried GP pay

Figure 4 and 5

GP contractor and Salaried GP pay. WTE vacancy adjusted pay for GP contractors compared to RPI since 2008/09. Headcount average gross employment earnings (salary) of salaried GPs working in GP practices compared to RPI since 2008/09.