NHS industrial action 2022–2024

In 2022, 2023 and 2024, several NHS staff groups took part in industrial action in response to government pay offers. 

Agenda for Change staff 

In July 2022, the government announced it had accepted the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body for staff on the NHS Agenda for Change pay system. Staff including nurses and paramedics would receive a pay rise of at least £1,400 or 5.5% and lower earning staff such as porters and cleaners would get a pay rise of up to 9.3%. 

Concerns that this was low compared to rising living costs led trade unions to ask members to vote on taking industrial action over the pay offer. This included the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which announced in October 2022 that it would ballot members on industrial action for the first time in its history.  

In November 2022, the RCN and several other unions announced that nurses, ambulance workers and some allied health professionals had voted in favour of national action. Strikes took place on several dates in December 2022 and early 2023.  

In March 2023, the government made a revised pay offer to Agenda for Change staff. This included:   

• For 2022/23: two separate non-consolidated payments in addition to the annual pay increase implemented in July 2022 – a payment equal to 2% of an individual’s salary plus an 'NHS backlog bonus' with an average value of 4% of their salary. These did not affect pensionable earnings. 
• For 2023/24: a consolidated, permanent pay rise of 5% for most staff and a higher uplift for the lowest paid staff. 

Members of several unions accepted the new offer but others, including RCN and Unite members, rejected it and announced further strikes. 

The RCN’s six-month mandate from its initial ballot to strike lapsed in May 2023, so a re-ballot was required. A new ballot in June 2023 did not meet the 50% turnout threshold so strike action could not continue. Members of Unite continued to take strike action at some trusts over pay, but there were no further national strikes. 

Doctors and dentists 

In July 2022, the government accepted the recommendation of the Doctors and Dentists’ Remuneration Body to increase the salaries of staff in their remit by 4.5% in 2022/23. Unions representing doctors and dentists demanded that the government restore pay in line with previous levels and reform the pay review body process. 

Junior doctors (renamed resident doctors in September 2024) voted for strike action in early 2023 and initially went on strike during spring/summer 2023. In some trusts, they were joined by hospital dental trainees. A ballot of consultants planned for April 2023 was delayed after the government committed to talks with the British Medical Association (BMA). 

In July 2023, the government announced a 2023/24 pay uplift of at least 6% for doctors and dentists. Junior doctors, consultants and some dental staff went on strike in response, including joint strikes in September and October 2023. In April 2024, the BMA announced that consultants had accepted a government pay offer, bringing an end to their industrial action. Junior doctors continued industrial action. 

In July 2024, following a general election, the new Labour government sought to end the junior doctor strikes. In September 2024, the BMA announced that junior doctors had voted to accept the government’s pay uplift of 22.3% (on average) across the two-year dispute period.