The Scottish Government has made an offer of a 5.5 per cent pay increase for NHS Agenda for Change staff.

If trade unions accept the offer, almost 170,000 staff will receive the rise backdated to 1 April 2024.

Nurses, midwives, paramedics, allied health professionals, porters and others are included.

A band 5 nurse would receive an extra £2,072 and a band 2 porter would receive £1,395.

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “Following weeks of constructive engagement with trade union representatives, I am pleased to have agreed an offer, in recognition of the Pay Review Body recommendations, that will ensure Scotland’s nurses and NHS staff have the best pay package in the UK. The unions will now consult their members and I hope it will be accepted.

“I want to express my thanks again to Scotland’s hardworking healthcare staff for their commitment and patience – they are the very backbone of the NHS and we are committed to supporting them, particularly during a cost of living crisis. I am grateful for the continued efforts around the table and that the trade unions will now put this to their members.”

RCN Scotland Director Colin Poolman said: “It has taken months of pressure from the RCN and other health trade unions to get to this point. Nursing staff are rightly frustrated that the Scottish government has kept them waiting while the cost of living continued to increase.

“Our pay claim, submitted in February, called for an offer that reflects increases in living costs and begins to address the historic erosion of pay. Our members will decide if today’s announcement is enough. That process begins with RCN Scotland Board members looking at the offer in detail.

“Nursing staff are the ever-present, safety-critical workforce across the whole of health and care. Our wages do not reflect this and still won’t after today. Fair pay is vital to recruiting and retaining nursing staff, to filling the thousands of vacant nurse jobs and giving people the care they deserve.”