Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will give an undertaking to the British Medical Association not to impose a new junior doctors’ contract.

Ben Gummer

It remains the Government’s preference to reach a negotiated agreement with the British Medical Association (BMA). However, since the BMA Junior Doctors Committee withdrew from negotiations in October 2014, they have refused repeatedly to re-enter negotiations, even though they entered those negotiations recognising that the current contract was not fully fit for purpose and needed to change.

On 28 OctoberGovernment confirmed that the pay of all junior doctors working safe hours in the transition to the new contract would be protected and again appealed to the BMA to return to negotiations.

A new contract will be introduced from August 2016 that promotes safe working and rewards juniors more fairly in relation to the hours they work.