Scotland: Hospital dentists’ pay
We have been united with the BMA in campaigning for fair pay for hospital doctors and dentists. We have continued to work closely with the BMA who negotiate the hospital terms and conditions for hospital doctors and dentists with our input.
The following pay information is for NHS dentists in Scotland employed on hospital contracts and relates to the 2024-25 financial year pay awards.
Resident Dentists in Training
A cumulative pay award of 11% has been accepted for the financial year 2024-25:
- An initial uplift of 8.5% from 01 April 2024.
- A further uplift of 2.3% from 01 October 2024.
- This applies to all NHS Scotland resident doctors, dentists in training, as well as relevant clinical academics.
Read more about all aspects of the accepted pay offer.
SAS dentists
The pay award for the financial year 2024-25:
- A 6% pay uplift for Specialty Doctors on the 2022 and 2008 contracts, and for Associate Specialists on the 2008 contract. It also applies to any SAS doctors on pre-2008 contracts. This uplift is the recommendation made by DDRB in its 2024 report.
- Matching pay rates for Specialist doctors to the salaries agreed in England. This equates to 10.07% for the first pay point and to 7.14% for points 2 and 3.
- The uplift would be backdated to 1 April 2024 and applies to all NHS Scotland SAS doctors and hospital dentists.
- The pay scales for Specialty Doctors keep pay slightly ahead of England, Wales and Northern Ireland at all scale points. The Specialist pay scale would be the same as in the other UK nations.
- A commitment to develop a policy to provide a mechanism for regrading from Specialty Doctor to Specialist, consistent with policies in other UK nations.
- A commitment to discussions to agree a national rate for internal short-term cover.
Find out more about the accepted pay offer.
Consultants
Consultants received a pay award of 10.5% for the financial year 2024-25:
- Total investment of £124.9m (11%) in pay, which is made up of:
- An uplift of 10.5% to all pay points on the proposed pay scale.
- An increase in the value of discretionary points from £3,204 to £3,600 (12.35%).
- This applies to all NHS Scotland Consultants and relevant Clinical Academics.
- The pay scale has the highest starting salary in the UK and maintains parity with the other UK nations at almost all pay points.
The new pay scale begins at £107,144, the highest starting consultant salary in the UK. The top of the scale will be £142,369; this is higher than England and Northern Ireland, but lower than Wales for basic pay at the top of the scale. However, Scottish consultants can surpass the Welsh figure if they have discretionary points.