Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration - 2026-2027 pay round: written evidence

Appendices

Notes

• Sourced from NES administrative pay bill data file 2024/25 from the Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS).
• Temporary (Bank and Agency) staff have been removed.
• Resident Doctors include Foundation Years 1 & 2, Specialty Training (SpR, StR etc.) and Clinical Fellows. Basic pay excludes banding supplements; Total pay includes banding supplements.
• SAS includes Associate Specialists and Specialty Doctors.
• Other grade includes Dental Officers, Dental Practitioners, Dental Core Training, and General Practitioners.
• Average basic pay is calculated as the aggregated basic pay divided by the aggregated Year WTE.
• Average total pay is calculated as the aggregated total pay divided by the aggregated Year WTE.
• Gender difference in average basic and total pay uses the male amount minus the female amount. A difference greater than zero means the male amount is higher than the female amount. Note other data sources may use alternative methods for gender pay gaps.

Commentary

2.1 Differences in average total pay

• Overall, male M&D staff have higher total pay than females.
• Higher total pay for males is observed across all grades, except for the Resident Doctor grade where females have greater total pay than males.
• The largest difference in average total pay occurs in the Consultant grade group, where males earn on average around £15,211 more than females.

Source: Bank and Agency tab of the NHS Scotland workforce dashboard NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence Commentary: Medical Agency spend has increased over the last 10 years, from £65.9m to £108.0m, a 64.0% increase. However, Medical Agency spend has decreased by 16.7% (£21.6m) over the last year. The majority of territorial health boards have reduced agency spend since last year except NHS Shetland, Western Isles, Ayrshire & Arran and Forth Valley. The health boards with the highest agency spend were NHS Grampian (£18.5m), Highland (£15.6m) and Fife (£14.5m). These were also the health boards with the highest spend last year.

Source: ISD Scotland National Statistics, NHS Scotland Workforce (up to Sep-18); NES Official Statistics, NHS Scotland Workforce (Sep-19 onwards). NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Note

1. From the 30 September 2018, the employment model for Resident Doctor (previously called Doctors in Training (DiT)) has changed affecting both the DiT grade and Other grade. As such, trend information for DiT (including Foundation house officer year 1 and year 2), 'Other' and therefore Medical overall figures should be interpreted with caution.

2. Staff in the consultant grouping is the sub-group excludes clinical, medical and dental directors.

3. Staff in the director (clinical, medical & dental) group include assistant chief administrative dental officer, assistant clinical director, chief administrative dental officer, clinical director and medical director.

4. Staff in the doctor in training (with NTN) group include registrar, senior registrar, specialist registrar, and specialty registrar.

5. Staff in the doctor in training (no NTN) group include core training, MTI, GPST and specialty registrar (core training).

6. Staff in the specialty doctor group include associate specialist, clinical medical officer, hospital practitioner, limited specialist, part time dental practitioner para 107 app, part time medical practitioner para 94 app. [clin ass], senior clinical medical officer, specialty doctor and staff grade.

7. Staff in the other group include clinical fellow, dental advisor [CSA only], dental core training - grade 1, dental core training - grade 2, general professional trainee – dental, other, prescribing advisor, salaried GDP, salaried GP and Sessional GP out of hours.

Commentary: Overall M&D workforce in NHS Scotland have consistently increased over the past ten years. Different timepoints within years are not comparable due to seasonal recruitment and retirement patterns. September is presented as the highest census point in the year following rotations.

Data Sources: NES Official Statistics, NHS Scotland Workforce

NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Note

1. Consultants excludes Clinical/Medical/Dental Directors as vacancy data for these posts are not published.

2. Establishment value is calculated as: Establishment=staff in post + total vacancies (not including posts under review).

3. The sum of the individual sub-specialties will not equal the "All medical specialties" total as only a selection of sub-specialties are presented here.

4. Vacancies are sourced from a vacancy survey filled in by each NHS Board with the defintion: "“a post which has been cleared for advert after being through the redeployment process (internal or external advert) and remains a vacancy until an individual starts in the post”.

5. Specialty groupings are defined as: Surgical specialties: Cardiothoracic surgery, General surgery, Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology, Oral & maxillofacial surgery, Otolaryngology, Paediatric surgery, Plastic surgery, Trauma & orthopaedic surgery, Urology, and Vascular surgery. Paediatric specialties: Paediatrics, and Paediatric cardiology. Mental health specialties: Child & adolescent psychiatry, Forensic psychiatry, General psychiatry, Old age psychiatry, Psychiatry of learning disability, and Psychotherapy.

Commentary: Since the previous year, consultant vacancies have increased by 12% (49.6 WTE), while establishment has increased by 185.5 WTE. Increased establishment suggests that new posts have been created due to the expansion of services. Vacancy data is available quarterly and there is seasonal variation within the year.

Source: NES Official Statistics, NHS Scotland Workforce - Data as at 30 September 2024

NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Note

1. Consultants - Includes Consultants and Directors of Public Health. Excludes Clinical/Medical/Dental Directors as vacancy data for these posts are not published.

2. Establishment value is calculated as: Establishment=staff in post + total vacancies (not including posts under review).

3. The sum of the individual sub-specialties will not equal the "All medical specialties" total as only a selection of sub-specialties are presented here.

4. Specialty groupings are defined as: Surgical specialties: Cardiothoracic surgery, General surgery, Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology, Oral & maxillofacial surgery, Otolaryngology, Paediatric surgery, Plastic surgery, Trauma & orthopaedic surgery, Urology, and Vascular surgery. Paediatric specialties: Paediatrics, and Paediatric cardiology. Mental health specialties: Child & adolescent psychiatry, Forensic psychiatry, General psychiatry, Old age psychiatry, Psychiatry of learning disability, and Psychotherapy.

Commentary: There were 447.4 WTE consultant vacancies as at 30 September 2025, with a vacancy rate of 6.7%. Of these vacancies, 40% of them were vacant for 6 months or more, therefore a 2.7% 6 months of more vacancy rate.

Data source: NHS Education Scotland (direct request) Commentary: 52.9% of M&D workforce are females while 47.1% are males. More than half (55.9%) of the M&D WTE are younger than 40.

Notes: 1. Leavers are defined as employees who were in post as at 31 March year n and not in post at 31 March year n+1. 2. Joiners are defined as employees who are in post as at 31 March year n+1 and were not in post at 31 March year n. 3. Turnover is calculated as the number of leavers divided by staff in post as at 31 March year n. 4. Turnover is the rate at which employees leave the workforce and is calculated by dividing the outflow over the year by the staff employed at the start of the period. 5. Medical figures exclude training grades to avoid distortion caused by frequent rotation of staff in training placements. Please note all historical data has been revised in line with the revision of the published official statistics. More details can be found in the accompanying revision statement: Microsoft Word - Revision Statement v2 (nhs.scot). Data source: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence Commentary: There were 178 more Medical and Dental joiners than leavers in 2024/25. The turnover rate has decreased slightly when compared to the previous year and is higher than the all staff group.

Data Source: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Note

1. Staff in the consultant group include consultants and directors of public health.

2. Staff in the director (clinical, medical & dental) group include assistant chief administrative dental officer, assistant clinical director, chief administrative dental officer, clinical director and medical director.

3. Staff in the doctor in training (with NTN) group include registrar, senior registrar, specialist registrar, and specialty registrar.

4. Staff in the doctor in training (no NTN) group include core training, MTI, GPST and specialty registrar (core training).

5. Staff in the specialty doctor group include associate specialist, clinical medical officer, hospital practitioner, limited specialist, part time dental practitioner para 107 app., part time medical practitioner para 94 app. [clin ass], senior clinical medical officer, specialty doctor and staff grade.

6. Staff in the other group include clinical fellow, dental advisor [CSA only], dental core training - grade 1, dental core training - grade 2, general professional trainee - dental, other, prescribing advisor, salaried GDP, salaried GP and Sessional GP out of hours.

7. % is the proportion of that medical grade who are female

Commentary: Sex differences in headcount

In all medical grades except for Consultants and Directors, there is a higher number of females.

The largest difference is in Dental officers where 75.5% of the workforce is female.

Sex differences in WTE

After accounting for WTE, both Consultant's and Directors have a higher proportion of Males

The largest difference is Dental officers where 74.8% of the workforce is female.