The government and the BMA trade union have struck an improved pay deal for junior doctors in England worth 22% on average over two years.
The BMA’s junior doctors’ committee has agreed to put the offer to its members.
If accepted it would spell an end to long-running strike action which has led to the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of appointments since March 2023.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the offer marked “the start of a new relationship” between the government and NHS staff.
The latest government offer is made up of a 4% backdated pay rise for 2023-24, on top of the existing increase worth an average of 9% for the last financial year.
An additional 6% increase is being offered for 2024-25 as recommended by an independent pay review body, topped up with an extra £1,000 consolidated payment.
That brings the total over the two years to roughly 22%, on average, for each junior doctor.
The BMA’s junior doctors’ committee will recommend the offer to its members, who will then be asked to vote on the deal.
Junior doctors have been campaigning for a 35% pay increase to make up for what they say are years of below inflation pay rises.
Addressing the Commons, the chancellor Rachel Reeves said industrial action in the NHS had cost taxpayers £1.7bn last year.
“Today marks the start of a new relationship between the government and staff working in the NHS,” she said. “The whole country will welcome that.”
Meeting the recommendations of independent pay review bodies for the public sector would cost an extra £9bn this year, she added, which would be paid for in part by asking government departments to find £3bn worth of savings.
There will be a freeze on the use of outside consultants and non-essential government communications.
In health and social care, plans to build 40 new hospitals in England by 2030 would face a “complete review”, while the chancellor said it would “not be possible” to introduce a cap on social care costs in England by October 2025 as Labour pledged in its election campaign.