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Welsh health secretary calls for end to public sector pay cap

Welsh health secretary Vaughan Gething has called on the UK Government to remove the 1% cap on annual pay rises for public sector staff.

The cap, which has also been applied when UK governments have decided GP contractual uplifts, has been in place since 2012.

The Labour Party called for its removal in the general election campaign, and health secretary Jeremy Hunt has indicated he would review it for nurses.

Mr Gething said: ‘I’ve today written to the [Mr] Hunt, urging him to make the case to the UK Treasury to remove the cap on pay and make funds available across the UK to allow hard working NHS staff to receive a pay uplift of greater than 1%.

‘Yesterday, the UK Government found more than £1bn to effectively end austerity in Northern Ireland. I fully expect them to make money available so that we can give our hardworking health service staff the pay rise they deserve. They deserve nothing less.’

BMA Wales GP Committee chair Dr Charlotte Jones said via Twitter that she ‘fully supports’ the call.