SNP Manifesto: Nurses' pay

“But it is important to say that nurses in Scotland get paid more than nurses in England”

• Nurses do get paid less England than in Scotland. After nurses qualify they start on the band 5 NHS pay level, which at the lower end of the scale amounts to £11.31 an hour in England, and £11.47 in Scotland. The difference adds up to just over £300 more a year for a nurse working full time in Scotland. This is without counting any extras for anti-social hours worked or for living in London.
• In fact Scotland’s nurses get paid more than nurses in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. This is across all pay bands.
• Pay varies across the UK as the different governments have taken different approaches to independent NHS pay review recommendations, according to the Royal College of Nursing. The Scottish government has implemented all pay review recommendations to date.