This is your chance to demand better working lives as industrial action ballot dates confirmed.
A ballot of Scottish consultants on industrial action over working lives and pay will open on 26 October and close on 7 December; please ensure both dates are in your diary. To ensure you are eligible to vote, please check your details are correct.
Scottish consultants are being balloted for industrial action to press the Scottish Government to return to meaningful negotiations on pay and working lives. The ballot aims to secure safe and sustainable workloads, proper recognition and reward for senior doctors, and a meaningful role for consultants in decisions about the services they lead and deliver.
Action is now necessary because repeated calls for talks have been ignored, despite a previous commitment to address consultant pay erosion. Ongoing workforce pressures, rising vacancies, burnout, loss of trust, and major service reforms being developed without proper senior doctor involvement have made clear that goodwill alone will not deliver the change needed for doctors, patients or the NHS in Scotland.
Our aims
The proposed ballot is intended to secure a negotiated settlement that makes progress towards pay restoration and improves consultant wellbeing and working conditions.
SCC’s position is that industrial action should remain a last resort, but that a successful ballot may now be necessary to bring the Scottish Government back to meaningful negotiations on valuing senior doctors, supporting safe services and addressing the long-term sustainability of the consultant workforce in Scotland.
Background
The BMA Scottish Consultants Committee is balloting consultant members in Scotland on industrial action in response to the Scottish Government’s handling of senior doctor pay and working conditions. The dispute follows the Government’s decision to impose the 2026/27 DDRB recommended 3.5% pay uplift without meaningful discussion on pay restoration, wellbeing or reform of the working week.
In late 2024, SCC reached an agreement with the Scottish Government on consultant pay for 2024/25, including an 11% uplift and an expectation that future DDRB recommendations would provide a basis for further discussions on tackling pay erosion. SCC participated in the 2025/26 DDRB process and continued to seek engagement with the Scottish Government on both pay and conditions, including proposals for a safe and sustainable working week. However, this engagement did not lead to meaningful progress.
Consultant members were surveyed in April and May 2026 on the DDRB recommendation and the wider approach to pay. Of the 428 respondents, more than 80% said the recommended uplift was too low and that BMA Scotland should pursue direct negotiations with the Scottish Government to improve the award. A majority also supported campaigning for industrial action or strike action if direct negotiations were unsuccessful.
Following the Scottish Parliamentary election in May 2026, SCC and SSASC requested joint discussions with the new Cabinet Secretary for Health and Care. At a meeting on 5 August, the Cabinet Secretary confirmed the Scottish Government’s intention to impose the DDRB uplift and offered no meaningful engagement on working week reform. This was confirmed in writing on 12 August, with pay circulars issued the same day. SCC and SSASC then entered a formal dispute with the Scottish Government over pay and conditions and sought urgent talks to resolve it. As of mid-September, no response had been received from the Scottish Government.
See the 2024-25 consultant pay deal.
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