On 20 October 2026, the government published its evidence to the Pay Review Body (PRB).
The PRB is expected to make a recommendation for the 2027-28 pay award early in 2027.
This will cover all NHS staff on Agenda For Change (AfC) terms and conditions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland covered by AfC terms and conditions.
The most critical part of the government’s evidence is a recommendation to limit the headline pay increase to 2.4 per cent.
The Society of Radiographers called the government’s suggestion unreasonable and self-defeating.
SoR executive director of industrial strategy, Dean Rogers, said: “Inflation is currently 3.5 per cent. The rise is driven by rising fuel costs globally, and you’d have to be very optimistic to think inflation will fall by over a third between now and next April. So the government is basically saying to the PRB, NHS and unions, ‘If you want to pay people enough to keep up with basic costs you’ll have to fund it yourselves.’ That’s not credible from a government that also says it wants to change NHS working cultures. It’s an abdication of responsibility and leadership.”
Dean added: “There is a lot of mention of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England in their evidence. However, we were told to expect a new workforce plan to support that last spring. There is no mention of a workforce plan in their evidence, so we can assume it is now progressing without one. In lieu, we have a mixture of lip service with an overdose of wishful thinking.
“Just saying you recognise a problem isn’t the same as having a plan to fix it.
“When the evidence gets to anything around ‘how’, the government sounds lost. It ends up with the same hollow mantras about valuing staff but expecting them to work harder for less than NHS staff received under the last government.
“Suggesting it can only afford 2.4 per cent when inflation is 3.5 per cent and rising is unreasonable and will ultimately be self-defeating. The government seems to assume our members will forever put up with being asked to do more for less. We know in areas like sonography, where people are leaving the NHS to earn double as agency workers, this is nonsense.”
The SoR is the only AfC union that has submitted its own written evidence to the PRB. We will also be submitting oral evidence to the PRB in November, which will include more detailed analysis and comment on the government’s evidence.