UK strikes news - live: Breakthrough on NHS pay and teacher talks as passport staff to walkout

Teaching unions and the government have agreed to hold “intensive talks” on teacher pay, conditions and workload reduction, after a breakthrough on NHS pay saw health worker strikes suspended.

The offer – backed by the Royal College of Nursing, the GMB and Unison – includes a one-off lump sum for 2022-23 that rises in value up the NHS pay bands, as well as a permanent 5 per cent rise on all pay points for 2023-24.

Union members will now vote on whether to accept the deal, with workers expected to consider the detail over the coming days and weeks.

In a further development, education unions agreed to “create a period of calm for two weeks during which time they have said no further strike dates will be announced” as they hold intensified talks with the government.

But it came as the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union announced that HM Passport Office staff will strike for five weeks from the start of April – potentially leaving more than one million passport applications stuck in a bottleneck of applications.

Key Points

• Breaking: Teaching unions and government to hold ‘intensive talks’ after strikes

• Passport Office staff to hold five weeks of strikes, PCS announces

• NHS strikes: Major step as government and unions agree pay offer

• BMA hints at imminent talks between ministers and junior doctors

New NHS pay deal would cost £4bn, says Downing Street

13:24 , Andy Gregory

The new pay deal offered to striking NHS workers, including nurses and paramedics, would cost an additional £4bn, Downing Street has said.

“The non-consolidated element for 2022/23 is an additional investment of around £2.7 billion,” a No 10 spokesperson said. “The consolidated element for 2023/24 is an additional investment of around £1.3 billion.”

The spokesperson would not detail how it will be funded, with the health department to hold discussions with the Treasury.

NHS pay offer ‘may provide template’ for unlocking separate disputes, says union leader

12:56 , Andy Gregory

The NHS pay offer “may provide a template for unlocking disputes elsewhere in the wider public sector”, Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, has suggested.

Members will be looking closely at what the government has offered and expect ministers to “pursue similar active negotiations” with them, he said – shortly before education unions and the government announced “intensive talks” would take place this weekend on their separate dispute.

Breakthrough NHS pay offer ‘far from perfect’ but offers’ tangible progress’, say union chiefs

12:28 , Andy Gregory

Union leaders have suggested that the breakthrough NHS pay offer from the government is “far from perfect” but offers “tangible progress”.

Unison’s head of health Sara Gorton said: “It’s a shame it took so long to get here. But following days of intensive talks between the Government, unions and employers, there’s now an offer on the table for NHS staff.”

Rachel Harrison, GMB national secretary, said the government has gone from refusing to talk about pay this year to putting an extra £2.5 billion on the table.

She said the offer was “far from perfect”, but added: “GMB members should rightly be proud of themselves. It’s been a tough road but they have faced down the Department of Health and won an offer that we feel is the best that can be achieved at this stage through negotiation.”

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: “It is not a panacea, but it is real, tangible progress.” Dr Suzanne Tyler, of the Royal College of Midwives, described it as “a good deal won by the power of collective action by unions”.

Major step towards end of NHS strikes as government and unions agree pay offer

Exclusive: Rail talks set for next week as fresh round of strikes begin

11:57 , Andy Gregory

As the latest round of national rail strikes began at 14 train operators on Thursday, the leader of the RMT union Mick Lynch told The Independent said he expects talks to resume next week.

Speaking at a picket line at London Euston station, Mr Lynch indicated that the third and fourth days of industrial action, 30 March and 1 April, could be averted, saying: “We’re looking to get back around the table next week.

“We want to work up some solutions to these problems and we want to get a square deal for our people. If we can do that, the dispute will be ended.”

Exclusive: Rail talks set for next week as fresh round of strikes begin

Statement in full as education unions to hold ‘intensive talks’ with government

11:34 , Andy Gregory

Here is the joint statement from the government and education unions, after it was announced this morning that they would hold “intensive talks” this weekend, starting today:

“The government and the education trade unions, Association of School and College Leaders, National Association of Head Teachers, NASUWT and National Education Union, have agreed to move into a period of intensive talks. The talks will focus on teacher pay, conditions and workload reduction.

“In order for talks to begin and, we hope, reach a successful conclusion, the NEU has confirmed it will create a period of calm for two weeks during which time they have said no further strike dates will be announced.

“The education secretary and all unions will meet today, beginning intensive talks, which will continue over the weekend.”

Watch: Simon Calder on the new Passport Office strikes

10:58 , Andy Gregory

Existing NHS budgets ‘provide enough' to cover proposed pay rise, Raab insists

10:33 , Andy Gregory

The NHS’s existing budgets “provide enough” to pay for the government’s 5 per cent pay offer to striking staff, the deputy prime minister has said.

“Well 3.5% has already been budgeted for,” Dominic Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It won’t come of course from frontline funding and the Health Secretary will set out some more of the details once we have got this thing settled.”

Pressed on whether further funding will be provided, he said: “That will be for the health secretary and the chancellor in the usual way to consider.

“I think the expectation will be the budget is set, it provides enough resource but of course with all of these things and particularly with something as fluid as the strikes, the opportunity to make sure we get that right is there. But the good news is that the vast majority of unions have accepted the offer.

“The health secretary has done a great job in calmly working through to a point of compromise and we hope that all of the unions will in that way ... we can do the right thing by our brilliant NHS staff.”

All the trains running during the next round of rail strikes

10:14 , Andy Gregory

Nine months after the national rail strikes began, the biggest rail union is staging four more days of strikes, wrecking journey plans for millions of prospective passengers in the second half of March and into April.

Tens of thousands of members of the RMT union working for 14 train operators will walk out on 16, 18 and 30 March, plus 1 April.

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has this comprehensive guide on what to expect:

Which trains will be running during the next round of rail strikes?

PCS attacks ministers for ‘failing to hold any meaningful talks'

10:01 , Andy Gregory

Announcing the huge escalation in strikes by Passport Office staff, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka blamed ministers for having “ failed to hold any meaningful talks with us”.

“This escalation of our action has come about because, in sharp contrast with other parts of the public sector, ministers have failed to hold any meaningful talks with us, despite two massive strikes and sustained, targeted action lasting six months,” the union leader said.

“Their approach is further evidence they’re treating their own workforce worse than anyone else. They’ve had six months to resolve this dispute but for six months have refused to improve their 2% imposed pay rise, and failed to address our members’ other issues of concern.

“They seem to think if they ignore our members, they’ll go away. But how can our members ignore the cost-of-living crisis when 40,000 civil servants are using foodbanks and 45,000 of them are claiming the benefits they administer themselves?

“It’s a national scandal and a stain on this government’s reputation that so many of its own workforce are living in poverty.”

Passport Office workers to hold five-week strike, PCS announces

09:43 , Andy Gregory

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder reports

More than one million passport applications could be stuck in a bottleneck when HM Passport Office staff strike for five weeks from the start of April.

In a “significant escalation” of a dispute over jobs, pay and conditions, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union says more than 1,000 members will walk out at all seven offices in England, Wales and Scotland from 3 April to 5 May. Staff at the Passport Office in Belfast may join the strike later.

The union says the walkout will have a “significant impact” on the delivery of passports as the summer approaches.

How will five-week Passport Office strike affect your travel plans?

Breaking: Teaching unions and government to hold ‘intensive talks’ after strikes

09:24 , Andy Gregory

The government and education unions have agreed to “intensive talks” on teacher pay, conditions and workload reduction, they announced in a joint statement.

The talks, which will focus on pay, conditions and workload reduction, will involve unions including the National Education Union (NEU), whose members were on strike in England earlier this week.

It comes after health unions and the government reached an agreement on a final pay offer following weeks of talks and months of strikes.

You can refresh our breaking story for more updates:

Teaching unions and government to hold ‘intensive talks’ after strikes

NHS pay rise ‘won’t be funded by existing health service budget’

09:05 , Emily Atkinson

A union leader has claimed that officials negotiating on behalf of NHS workers for a pay rise were told the proposed 5 per cent pay increase from April would not be funded from the health service’s existing budgets.

Rachel Harrison, national secretary of the GMB, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “That was one of the conditions that the GMB and some of the other unions put on the table before we even entered the room.

“We wanted reassurance that this was additional money and it was not going to come out of NHS current budgets and that was the commitment we were given by the government.”

She added: “We were told that this would be additional money and it wouldn’t come out of existing health budgets.

“This would be new money that wouldn’t come out of NHS budgets and that is the information we were told.

“I don’t work for the Treasury, I can’t tell you where that money is coming from but we were given reassurances that this was not existing health money.”

BMA hints at imminent talks between ministers and junior doctors

08:55 , Emily Atkinson

Striking junior doctors could meet the health secretary as soon as Friday afternoon to discuss a pay rise, a member of the British Medical Association (BMA) said.

Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he hopes talks with Steve Barclay can begin soon.

Dr Trivedi said: “Our position has been that we are open to talk in good faith, meaningfully, at any time.

“We were ready to talk months ago. Our formal dispute started over 150 days ago and, again, that is just what I mean in that it is disappointing it has taken Steve Barclay so long to get to the negotiating table.

“I only hope that he does come with good faith and a mandate to negotiate.

“So far we haven’t arranged a time for this afternoon but there has been some correspondence between our offices so it does look like we’ll be able to set something up in the near future.”

Raab shares hopes for pay deal with junior doctors

08:45 , Emily Atkinson

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said the government hoped a similar pay deal could be struck with junior doctors after a host of unions accepted an offer for nurses and other NHS workers on Thursday.

Speaking to GB News, Mr Raab said: “I think it is good news that in all of those areas the vast majority of unions have accepted the deal that has been offered following the discussions with the Health Secretary.

“In relation to junior doctors, I know that the Health Secretary has extended the offer for negotiations with the BMA (British Medical Association).

“The same offer is there. I think it would be the right thing to do for them to accept it, I hope they will.

“I think it is a good deal, which is fair, which recognises the situation they are in, recognises the need we all have got to tackle the backlog in the NHS.”

NHS strikes: Major step as government and unions agree pay offer

08:34 , Emily Atkinson

NHS unions and ministers have reached a new pay offer for frontline staff in a move which could herald the end of walkouts by nurses and paramedics.

The government and the NHS Staff Council – which represents nurses, ambulance staff and other NHS workers – reached a consensus after weeks of negotiations and months of strikes.

The breakthrough came after The Independent revealed that ministers would introduce a 5.2 per cent wage uplift from April after originally saying they could not go beyond 3.5 per cent.

Rebecca Thomas, Kate Devlin and Adam Forrest have this report:

Major step towards end of NHS strikes as government and unions agree pay offer