NHS England is asking the highest-earning GPs to declare their income by 30 April – including partners, salaried and locum GPs.
The commissioner published guidance on the pay transparency requirement today, after consulting with the BMA’s GP Committee and the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants (AISMA) late last year.
In the new guidance, NHS England set out who is required to make a ‘pay transparency self-declaration’ and explains the process of making the self-declaration and how the data collected will be used.
The guidance sets the threshold for earnings at which GPs have to declare at £156,000 for 2021/22; £159,000 for 2022/23; and £163,000 for 2023/24.
The self-declaration will need to be completed by the end of April, NHS England has said.
The document states that in addition to those who hold the GP contract as partners (including partners who are not GPs) and contractors who are individual medical practitioners, the following will be required to make a self-declaration for each financial year in which their NHS earnings exceed the threshold for the relevant financial year:
- partners of clinical sub-contractors and sub-contractors who are an individual (including partners of any onward clinical sub-contractors and any onward clinical sub-contractor who is an individual) –
- those who work for (are engaged by) either a contractor (regardless of whether the contractor is an individual medical practitioner, a partnership or a limited company) or clinical sub-contractor (including any onward clinical sub-contractors) under either:
- a contract of employment
- a contract for services
- or as a company officer (directors and any company secretary).
- those engaged by a third party to provide clinical services (for example a locum engaged via an employment agency)
This timeline means that GPs covered by the requirement need to make their first self-declaration of 2021/22 NHS earnings by 23:59 on 30 April.
GPs are required to make the self-declaration on the Forms Platform via the Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS).
Those with NHS earnings above the threshold for the relevant year will first need to register with the SDCS and then create an account to make their self-declaration on the Forms Platform and those who previously submitted their 2019-20 NHS earnings via the SDCS will need to re-register.
The pay transparency requirement was originally delayed due to the pandemic and then again in November and April last year, when GPs faced the first and second deadlines to submit declarations.
Meanwhile, yesterday chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the Government will abolish the pensions Lifetime Allowance in a bid to retain GPs and other doctors.
READERS' COMMENTS [31]
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Pointless exercise
why only gp’s ?
why not consultants ?
…………….or politicians ?
Bullying,of course this will bring more GPs into primary care ,NOT.
Because…?
I cannot understand in whose best interests this could possibly be?? And what about the right to privacy? Not that I am anywhere near the declaration threshold but it makes me so angry. How to demonise and demoralise an already broken profession.
There will be some initial press interest and it will quickly die down. However, it will be essential reading for GP staff, salaried GP’s and trainees. Those practices on it will have pissed off staff gossiping about the high earning bosses. Those practices not on it are going to struggle to recruit GPs and attract partners.
I am guessing this is NHS only and after superann employers contribution removed and after all personal expenses removed so there will be very few people at this level. Personally I never had over 100k and most of the time averaged 80k in the last 10 years. So I hope it simply tells people that GPs are not fat cats and the DM will be disappointed.
GOV is just holding this card, as there is ongoing debate about GPs rebelling against the contract imposition.
I expect no mass “walk out” or protest after a good pension outcome.
I also expect this will be dropped based on some spurious technicality, when not needed as threat to hold over us.
But if it does go ahead, I expect in the current recruitment situation, some practices will actually be happy to have GPs “named and shamed”, makes a good job advert?
How exactly are they going to know if people don’t tell them? Tax returns are confidential. This also seems like a very good way of putting GPs and their families in potential danger. Would not be hard for GPs on the list to be identified and followed home. Has anyone considered this?!
156K?
I wish.
Presume new partners won’t have any legal rights if you over declare to attract them and then they see the reality. Perhaps the data needs to be in FTE stats like the rest of NHS Digitals stuff. As a partner earning 156k doing a 70 hour week unable to recruit into a substantive vacancy is going to be over worked and now abused in the right leaning media 🤔😩
why stop with earnings above threshold? GB public has rights to know more about their GPs- stuff like sexual orientation, religious beliefs, alcohol consumption, marrital and relationship status, history of voting. All that must be in public domain in order to reassure the public that we are almost ok, almost normal human beings and deserve the right to see them.
https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/doctor-blames-published-earnings-for-violent-robbery-25904360.html
I don’t see any dentists, lawyers, politicians or an NHS manager doing that. That is an incursion of doctor’s human rights just to promote jealousy and hate. We are highly trained professionals and please stop apologizing for the supposedly high earnings. We studied really hard, paid a lot for our education both in time and money, we get up early, go home late. We deserve it and other countries value it. We are no where near any footballer or banker’s league.
This is just another pathetic effort by Government to morally blackmail GP. Why should minority of our colleagues feel ashamed if they earn more than this threshold ? Its well deserved money. All of us have have been on top of our school & high school education to get excellent grades to get in to medical school then sacrificed a lot personally & spent at least 10 years in university & higher professional education to become GP. Our job is very stressful, As a GP partners we manage business & generate employment for our staff. So if we are in top 1 % of earning in the country SO WHAT ?
WE TRULY DESRVE OUR EARNING & MUCH MORE THAN THAT.
I wonder why nobody has explored legal option whether this can be challenged in court of law ?
Is UK becoming a socialist Country ?
Becoming?
wont’ be doing it. I would hope no GP bothers to do this. What will they do? send you a letter? Shut down your surgery?
I look forward to hearing how much the Chancellor of the Exchequer earns from his investments from which income is taxed at about half the rate for earned income e.g. doctors’.
And it’s an odd thing that politicians are exempt from the eyewatering pension tax which has hit many doctors hard. Why would they do something like that?
It’s clear that we are now governed by those who make rules for others but not for themselves to follow.
NHSE simply need to do a disappearing trick which would almost certainly result in an improvement on care delivery with the sabings generated by such an act.
personally i dont see how they can legally ask for this. i have no problems with them publishing the income/fees they pay to the surgery thats public money. i have no problem with them publishing – my outcomes data and GP survey data. that is how well im doing for how much im being paid. what i dont agree is the basis that they can publish my personal profit from this. That can depend on how i pay myself and what level of staff i choose to have supporting me. i know lots of gps who run personal service companies that will take them below the threshold – i know some who hire loads of locums and do very little work in the practice – i might decide to hire a PA and a massage therapist and take my income below that threshold – or i might do my own typing and paperwork and be above it – it isnt for the publics or government to dictate how i work – only how much they pay me and how well i do.
GPS earning too little to declare will look at their colleagues and hand their contracts back!
Will the BMA mount a challenge???????
Maybe not.
Ironically they never broadcast how much per patient, average number of patient contacts or the number of results / letters. The unit ‘cost’ of the care being provided is derisory.
My children are not interested in medicine thankfully. They have worked out for themselves that the hourly income is worse than many other roles so that they can much less work/stress for only a bit less take home income.
1200 practices closed. The unintended effects of commercialising the service will be that the unit cost of care will be demanded by the commercial groups. As central funding is going to be tight for years, the service provided will be less than the public have been vociferously demanding.
We will all get the service that we deserve.
Completely unenforceable
I feel bullied by this. I can’t see how they will know if we should but don’t declare. Trouble is your partner colleagues will be in breach rather than solely the high earner. I’ll be resigning before that happens. Another one bites the dust.
What problem is it trying to solve?
James – It’s trying to populate the Daily Mail on-line’s Locate Your Fat-Cat GP and his home address so you can “discuss” your concerns about access on him directly. This is a fucking disgrace and as far as I’m concerned all bets are off.
I wonder how many other unions would allow their members to be bullied like this?
BMA not fit for purpose and hasn’t been for 30 years.
Why the consternation? Just don’t do it. Unenforceable, untraceable and even if one was to somehow be “found out”, so what?
As a profession it is time we just started to say foxtrot off to the inane ramblings of a deranged government/NHSE
Don’t bother. Just don’t do it. It’s unlawful, it breaches article 8 human rights act, right to privacy. Don’t bother complying; let them sue you, not. They won’t. Because they know its unlawful.
It’ll be same as the recent bullshit NHS app automatic upload that is also unlawful. When you don’t comply NHSE give in .. BECAUSE IT WAS UNLAWFUL ALL ALONG. The automatic upload doesn’t meet GDPR, UK GDPR or Data protection Act 2018. Under all of them the processing has to be NECESSARY for the aim pursued. (ie another as effective processing that less limits data subjects rights is not available). The patients can already opt in, ie consented to get their records uploaded.
In their own comms NHSE say automatic upload has risk of significant harm for some vulnerable patients eg in coercive relationships. The automatic upload is unlawful, unethical and its just NHSE trying to get control of GP record data and then do who knows what with it.
Anyway. Decline to declare your earnings.
The government/NHSE can do one.