Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2016 to Question 22953, on which dates and for how long on each such date ACAS meetings took place between 23 December 2015 and 4 January 2016.

Ben Gummer

Following the agreement under the auspices of ACAS on 30 November, the Department and NHS Employers held negotiations with the British Medical Association (BMA) including meetings on 23 December 2015 and 4 January 2016.

On 23 December the meeting started at 10.30 am finishing at 4 pm. On 4 January the meeting started at 10.30 am but broke at 10.45 am when the BMA withdrew to consider the offer but then never returned. The meeting was intended to continue until 3pm.

On the same day the BMA announced that, contrary to the understanding of the management side negotiators, they did not feel that enough progress had been made and announced further dates for industrial action in January and February.