SST / Alamy Stock Photo
The Scottish government has offered its Agenda for Change (AfC) staff, including hospital pharmacists, an 8% pay increase over two years.
The offer, made on 8 April 2025, involves pay raises of 4.25% in 2025/2026 and 3.75% in 2026/2027 for almost 170,000 NHS AfC staff and would be backdated to 1 April 2025 — a cumulative pay uplift of 8.16% which represents a £701m investment over the two years.
It also incorporates an inflation guarantee, which confirms that the increase in pay in each year of the deal will be at least one percentage point above the consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate.
Unlike the rest of the UK, NHS Scotland pay increases are determined through direct negotiations between the Scottish government and the NHS trade unions that form the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee.
Neil Gray, the Scottish health secretary, said: “This is a strong two-year pay offer that has been agreed following constructive engagement with trade union representatives. It is guaranteed to remain above CPI inflation, which gives added reassurance to staff and will ensure Scotland’s nurses, midwives and NHS staff have the best pay in the UK.
“This comes on the back of increased employer national insurance contributions following the UK government announcement in October 2024. It directly increases the overall cost of pay by an estimated £191m for Scotland’s NHS.”
Commenting on the principle of an above-inflation guarantee, a spokesperson for the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP) said: “A two-year pay deal also gives staff security for forward planning. Pharmacists and other AfC staff have faced suffocating inflation-related financial pressures over the past five years.
“It will be up to members to decide if they are content with the offer — further information on this will be forthcoming from the GHP/Unite the Union in due course.”
Paul Day, union director at the Pharmacists’ Defence Association, said: “The proposed increases would mean our members in NHS Scotland should see their pay grow more quickly than inflation. This will be another step towards restoring the purchasing power of our members’ pay, which has reduced due to increases of less than inflation in some previous years.”
A new NHS pay deal for hospital pharmacists in England and Wales has yet to be announced by the UK government.
In December 2024, the Department of Health and Social Care said that NHS AfC staff should receive a 2.8% pay uplift for 2025/2026, which Unite described as an “insult”.
In July 2024, the government offered a 5.5% pay uplift to NHS staff in England for 2024/2025 in line with a recommendation by the NHS Pay Review Body, which Unite members voted to accept in September 2024.
NHS AfC staff in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also a received a 5.5% pay increase for 2024/2025, after accepting the UK government’s offer in July 2024.
