Consultation on NHS mileage

Published: 20 March 2009

A six-week consultation on NHS mileage allowance arrangements with all the NHS unions and employers started on 16 March 2009.

The Mileage Allowance Working Group - made up of employers and unions, including the RCN - has been working on a new mileage agreement. This consultation will seek views on the ideas that are on the table so far. The current arrangements of the NHS mileage allowances are covered within Agenda for Change Section 17 and Annex L and M but this consultation is not a consultation on a 'new' Section 17 itself.

Staff and employers will be asked to give joint responses on a number of ideas. For example, whether or not the current complex mileage rates should be simplified into a single mileage rate or, perhaps, a single mileage rate with a lump sum. Views are also being sought on whether or not it is necessary to have a 'public transport rate'.

The Working Group would also like staff and employers to contribute their thoughts and ideas.

The NHS has collected data on mileage allowances paid and miles travelled through the electronic staff record anonymously, and the consultation will verify the accuracy of that data.

Further discussions will have to take place through the NHS Staff Council at the end of the consultation before any final agreement is made.

Joint responses from NHS employers and staff are encouraged - and it is vitally important that as many people as possible engage in these discussions at local level.