The shorter week is the bigger change

From 1 April 2026 a full-time week in NHS Scotland is 36 hours, down from 37, with no loss of pay. That is the second half of a reduction agreed in the 2023–24 settlement: 37.5 hours fell to 37 in April 2024, and the remaining hour was taken in one step this April rather than in stages.

Because pay is worked out on the shorter week, the published hourly rates rise by more than the 3.75% award. A band 5 at entry went from £17.26 to £18.40 an hour — a rise of 6.6%, against 3.75% on the annual salary. Anything calculated from the hourly rate moves with it.

Working 1 hour less each week for the same annual salary is a pay rise that will not show up in a salary comparison. It is the reason Scottish and English hourly rates are not comparable this year even where the annual figures look close.

Every band, 2026/27

Band	Entry	Intermediate	Top	Years to top	Hourly
Band 1	£26,557 single rate			—	£14.15
Band 2	£26,696	—	£28,988	2	£14.22–£15.44
Band 3	£29,103	—	£31,409	2	£15.50–£16.73
Band 4	£31,537	—	£34,303	3	£16.80–£18.27
Band 5	£34,544	£36,911	£43,039	4	£18.40–£22.93
Band 6	£43,231	£45,135	£52,679	5	£23.03–£28.06
Band 7	£52,845	£54,863	£61,466	5	£28.15–£32.74
Band 8a	£65,125	—	£70,303	5	£34.69–£37.45
Band 8b	£76,888	—	£82,251	5	£40.96–£43.82
Band 8c	£90,808	—	£97,338	5	£48.38–£51.85
Band 8d	£107,810	—	£112,426	5	£57.43–£59.89
Band 9	£127,521	—	£133,044	5	£67.93–£70.88

Hourly rates are published in the circular and reproduced here, based on the 36-hour standard week.

How Scotland compares with England

Scottish pay is above the English figure at the entry step of every band — from £1,285 more at band 1 to £14,739 more at band 9. The hourly gap is wider still, because a Scottish full-time week is 36 hours against England’s 37.5.

Band	Scotland	England	Difference	Scotland /hr	England /hr
Band 1	£26,557	£25,272	+£1,285	£14.15	£12.92
Band 2	£26,696	£25,272	+£1,424	£14.22	£12.92
Band 3	£29,103	£25,760	+£3,343	£15.50	£13.17
Band 4	£31,537	£28,392	+£3,145	£16.80	£14.52
Band 5	£34,544	£32,073	+£2,471	£18.40	£16.40
Band 6	£43,231	£39,959	+£3,272	£23.03	£20.44
Band 7	£52,845	£49,387	+£3,458	£28.15	£25.26
Band 8a	£65,125	£57,528	+£7,597	£34.69	£29.42
Band 8b	£76,888	£66,582	+£10,306	£40.96	£34.05
Band 8c	£90,808	£79,504	+£11,304	£48.38	£40.66
Band 8d	£107,810	£94,356	+£13,454	£57.43	£48.25
Band 9	£127,521	£112,782	+£14,739	£67.93	£57.68

Entry step only, and annual salary before tax. Scottish hourly rates are the ones printed in the circular; the English ones are derived, because the English document publishes no hourly column. The England scales, the Welsh scales and the Northern Ireland scales are published in full separately.

Where the structure differs too

It is not only the money. Bands 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 9 reach the top of the band in two steps in Scotland where England uses three, so a Scottish member of staff at those bands reaches the top of the scale on a different timetable.

The English circular marks band 1 closed to new entrants. The Scottish circular carries no such marking and lists band 1 as an ordinary band, with its own rate and its own place in the pay journey annex.

Unsocial hours

Scotland has its own table, and it is not England’s. At bands 1 to 3 the Scottish enhancements are higher — band 1 gets time plus 50% on a Saturday and double time on a Sunday, against England’s 47% and 94%. Bands 4 to 9 are the same in both.

Band	Saturday, and weekdays 8pm–6am	Sunday and public holidays
Band 1	+50%	+100% double time
Band 2	+44%	+88%
Band 3	+37%	+74%
Bands 4–9	+30%	+60%

A percentage added to your hourly rate for those hours, on top of basic pay.

How Scotland’s rates compare with the other nations, and the rules for which hours qualify.

Because the enhancement is a percentage of your hourly rate, and the hourly rate rose by more than the pay award when the week fell to 36 hours, unsocial hours pay went up by more than 3.75% as well. That compounding is easy to miss in a headline percentage.

On-call and sleep-in

Paid on top of basic pay when you are on-call or sleeping in. Scotland sets these nationally, and they rise with the pay award.

Allowance	Rate	Paid per	2025/26
On-call availability allowance	£27.51	a session	£26.51

From PCS(AFC)2026/1, paragraph 8. Transcribed as published, never worked out from the award percentage.

These rates can still go up

The two-year Scottish settlement carries an inflation guarantee: each year’s rise must end up at least one percentage point above average CPI inflation for that calendar year. It has already been triggered once. Average CPI for 2025 came in at 3.4%, so the 2025/26 rise was lifted from 4.25% to 4.4% and the arrears were paid in March 2026 — and that revised figure is the baseline the 3.75% was applied to.

The same guarantee is live for 2026/27. If average CPI over January to December 2026 exceeds 2.75%, these rates rise again, and the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee must publish a statement confirming it by 31 January 2027. So the figures on this page are what is payable now and are not provisional — but they are not the last word on this pay year either.

What is not on this page

No London weighting. High Cost Area Supplement is an England payment and does not apply in Scotland, so none is shown — an absence with a reason rather than a gap in our data.

These are basic salaries before income tax, National Insurance and pension. Scottish income tax rates differ from the rest of the UK, so take-home pay does not follow from these figures alone, and this site does not yet estimate it. See the methodology and the source register.

NHS Scotland pay scales 2026/27