Pay rises for doctors, police and more in the public sector

Reflecting the vital contributions public sector workers make to our country, these pay rises cover the Armed Forces, teachers, police Officers, the National Crime Agency, prison Officers, doctors and dentists, the Judiciary, senior civil servants and senior military personnel.

Nearly 900,000 workers will benefit across the country, with teachers and doctors seeing the largest rise at 3.1% and 2.8% respectively recognising their efforts on the frontline during the battle against COVID-19.

Police and prison officers will both have a 2.5% rise in pay. This comes as 6,435 new police officers were recruited to the force between November 2019 and March 2020, of which 3,005 joined specifically as part of the uplift programme to recruit 20,000 over the next 3 years. The Armed Forces will receive a 2% uplift as 16,340 new recruits join the UK Regular Armed Forces from April 2019 – March 2020 - an increase of 30.9% compared with the previous 12 month period.

This pay rise follows the settlement for more than one million NHS workers who continue to benefit from the three-year Agenda for Change pay deal, under which the starting pay for a newly qualified nurse has increased by over 12% since 2017/18.

This means nurses who are still moving up their pay structures will receive an average 4.4% rise this year. There are 12,220 more nurses and health visitors working for the NHS compared to last year.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said:

These past months have underlined what we always knew – that our public sector workers make a vital contribution to our country and that we can rely on them when we need them.

It’s right therefore that we follow the recommendations of the independent pay bodies with this set of real-terms pay rises.

Each award is recommended by independent pay review bodies, and this year government accepted the headline recommended rise for each workforce.

This year’s pay awards reflect the enormous effort made by those in the public sector in responding to the unprecedented challenges for the country during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The pay awards for the armed forces, prison officers, senior civil servants and NHS staff work will be backdated to April this year, whereas the pay rise for police and teachers starts in September which run on a different pay year (September-August).

A breakdown of the awards in full can be found below:

Further information

• We are conscious that public sector pay awards must deliver value for money for the taxpayer. The Coronavirus is having a very significant impact on the economy, labour market and the fiscal position, and the government will need to continue to take this into account in agreeing future public sector pay awards.

• Where a pay rise for 2020/21 is announced after the start of the financial year, the award will be backdated. Pay years vary between workforces. The year for police and teachers starts in September, while the armed forces, prison officers, senior civil servants and NHS staff work on an April to March pay year and so their awards will be backdated accordingly.

• The Civil Service pay remit guidance provides a framework within which all departments will set pay for non-SCS. For 20/21, departments are able to make average pay awards within the range of 1.5% to 2.5%.