Resident doctors in Scotland have opened a ballot running until 19 December on whether to stage strikes after accusing ministers of breaking a 2023 pay agreement. BMA Scotland says the proposed 2025/26 uplift would be the lowest in the UK and below the independent pay review body's recommendation. The government describes its offer as 4.25% for 2025/26 and 3.75% for 2026/27 and warns strikes would harm patients and efforts to cut waiting times. A 'yes' vote could prompt industrial action in the early weeks of the new year.
Scotland's Resident Doctors Begin Strike Ballot as Pay Dispute Escalates — Vote Open Until 19 December
Resident doctors in Scotland have opened a ballot running until 19 December on whether to stage strikes after accusing ministers of breaking a 2023 pay agreement. BMA Scotland says the proposed 2025/26 uplift would be the lowest in the UK and below the independent pay review body's recommendation. The government describes its offer as 4.25% for 2025/26 and 3.75% for 2026/27 and warns strikes would harm patients and efforts to cut waiting times. A 'yes' vote could prompt industrial action in the early weeks of the new year.
04:05 AM, 11/14/2025Health
Scotland's resident doctors begin strike ballot over pay dispute
Resident doctors in Scotland have opened a ballot on potential strike action after accusing the Scottish government of reneging on elements of a 2023 pay agreement. BMA Scotland says the proposed uplift for 2025/26 would be the lowest in the UK and falls short of the recommendation from the independent pay review body.
The ballot is open from Friday and runs until 19 December. If members vote 'yes', industrial action is likely to take place in the first weeks of the new year. The ballot coincides with a five-day walkout by resident doctors in England.
BMA response
Dr Chris Smith, chair of the BMA's Scottish resident doctor committee, said doctors were 'shocked' that ministers seemed poised to discard the pay progress made over the last two years. He urged the Scottish government to return to the negotiating table with a credible offer in line with the promises made in the 2023 deal and warned that, until now, Scotland had been the only UK nation to avoid major NHS industrial action.
'As always, we are ready to negotiate at any time and any place. But we will not sit idle while the Scottish government attempts to break the deal that they struck with Scottish resident doctors in 2023,' Dr Smith said.
Scottish government response
Health Secretary Neil Gray described the government's offer as 'fair, affordable, equitable' and urged members to reject strike action. He set out the package as 4.25% for 2025/26 and 3.75% for 2026/27, the same offer accepted earlier this year by nurses and some other NHS staff.
Gray highlighted recent pay increases for doctors — a 12.4% uplift for 2023/24 and a cumulative 11% uplift for 2024/25 — and said the government had also invested an additional £135.5m to tackle waiting times. He warned that any industrial action would be damaging to patients and would hinder progress on reducing waiting lists.
Impact and context
Resident doctors — the grade previously referred to as junior doctors — make up almost half of Scotland's medical workforce, from newly qualified clinicians to those with many years' experience. Strikes in England have already led to thousands of cancelled appointments and operations; similar action in Scotland would be highly disruptive and politically significant, particularly as ministers pledge to eliminate long waits for procedures by March next year.
The outcome of the ballot will determine whether negotiations intensify or whether NHS Scotland faces industrial action in an already stretched system. Both sides say they remain willing to negotiate, but the next steps depend on the ballot result and whether ministers return to talks in good faith.