NHS consultant pay, Net Zero claims and Scotland's ferry woes

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

NHS consultants in England are striking over a pay offer of 6%. We look at whether they are paid an average of £120,000 a year and examine how much their pay compared to inflation has fallen. Also we fact check some of the claims Rishi Sunak made in his net zero speech, ask whether Britain is really that bad at building infrastructure compared to other countries and investigate the real levels of cancellations at Scotland and the UK's largest ferry company, Calmac.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts
0:06.0	Hello and welcome to More or Less, the show that goes from net zero to 110% in under half an hour.
0:13.0	On today's programme, NHS consultants have been striking.
0:16.0	A loyal listener wants us to figure out what consultants really get paid.
0:21.0	Our big infrastructure projects are headache all over the world
0:25.0	or is there a very British problem to solve?
0:28.0	What is the net zero target and what do the government's recent policy changes about
0:33.0	boilers and electric vehicles mean for the UK's chances of hitting it?
0:37.0	And a tale of Scottish ferries?
0:40.0	And why the word reliability doesn't mean what you think it means.
0:48.0	Consultant doctors in England have been on a series of strikes
0:52.0	with two days in July, two in August and four in September.
0:55.0	Both the government and the British Medical Association
0:58.0	have been quoting statistics to argue their side of the case.
1:02.0	Loyal listener Laura is herself a consultant.
1:06.0	She got in touch with More or Less and you can do that too via More or Less at BBC.co.uk
1:11.0	and she asked,
1:12.0	The average salary of 120,000 keeps getting used
1:16.0	and it's misleading as the mean is dragged up by a small number on a ton of cash.
1:21.0	Most consultants are on less than 100,000
1:24.0	and many are struggling with childcare costs.
1:27.0	One that if someone might dig into the figures.
	...

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