Facts

Matt Hancock told the public at a coronavirus press briefing [BBC] [Facebook]: “We put up nurses’ pay last month, and in fact last year we had the fastest rise, the biggest rise in pay—especially for nurses when they are starting their career and the lowest paid nurses, who got a pay rise, very significant, of over 15%.”

While Hancock is correct to say that pay did increase at the beginning of the new financial year, there is no evidence that any nurses had a rise of over 15%.

A detailed analysis from Full Fact examined multiple measures of nurses’ pay, but found no rise of more than 15%. The highest they found was a 12% increase in cash terms, which would not account for inflation.

Full Fact also contacted the Department for Health and Social Care, which did not confirm specifically where the figure came from. 

Verdict

Matt Hancock’s claim about nurses’ pay was disputed by a detailed and highly credible analysis from fact checking organisation FullFact. The fact-checking organisation found that the government had increased nurses’ pay, but not by as much as claimed. 

When we asked Matt Hancock to respond to the claims laid out in this website, a spokesperson said: “This list is false, wildly inaccurate, and in some cases possibly even defamatory. For example claiming that some of Matt's claims in the Commons were in defiance of the ministerial code, when they were in fact accurate. The priority throughout this unprecedented pandemic has been saving lives.”