Annex: amended DDRB terms of reference
Published 30 September 2024
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2024
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The Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration was appointed in its current form in July 1971. Its terms of reference were introduced in 1998 and amended in 2003, 2007 and 2024, and are reproduced below.
The Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration is independent. Its role is to make recommendations to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care of the Scottish Government, the First Minister and the Minister for Health and Social Services of the Welsh Government and the First Minister, deputy First Minister and Minister of Health of the Northern Ireland Executive on the remuneration of doctors and dentists taking any part in the National Health Service (NHS).
In reaching its recommendations, the review body is to have regard to the following considerations, evaluating the weight of each independently, in parallel and non-contingently:
- the need to attract, recruit, retain and motivate doctors and dentists, including consideration of local and regional labour market factors, in view of their contribution to the health of the nation
- developments in doctors’ and dentists’ earnings in the context of long-term trends in the wider labour market, alongside comparator professions, including relevant international comparators
- economic and other evidence submitted by the government, and the funds available to the government health departments
- economic and other evidence submitted by staff and professional representatives, and others
- wider macroeconomic factors
- the overall strategy that the NHS should place patients at the heart of all it does and the mechanisms by which that is to be achieved
- the legal obligations on the NHS, including anti-discrimination legislation regarding age, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion and belief and disability
The review body may also be asked to consider other specific issues, where agreed by relevant unions and the government.
These terms of reference are intended to give all parties, including the remit groups, confidence that the review body’s recommendations have been independently, properly and fairly determined.
Reports and recommendations should be submitted jointly to the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care of the Scottish Government, the First Minister and the Minister for Health and Social Services of the Welsh Government, and the First Minister, deputy First Minister and Minister of Health of the Northern Ireland Executive.