The pay increase is actually worth 5.5% for nurses in the lowest pay bands

23 Dec 2022 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
Lowest paid nurses aren’t getting a 9% pay increase

“We also need to give a pay rise to nurses on the lowest pay, which is why we gave them, I think 9.3%, £1,400 across the board” — Oliver Dowden MP

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden claimed multiple times on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg last week that the lowest paid nurses had received a pay increase of 9%. But this isn’t correct.

The £1,400 pay increase awarded to NHS staff in England is worth 9.3% for those in the lowest pay bands, such as porters and cleaners.

But newly qualified nurses saw their pay increase from £25,655 to £27,055 per year following the recent pay award.

This represents a pay increase of around 5.5%, not 9.3%.

We contacted the Department for Health and Social Care, who pointed us to a factsheet which confirmed: “Newly qualified nurses have had a 5.5% increase and those on the lowest salaries, such as porters and cleaners, are seeing a pay rise of up to 9.3%.”

If Mr Dowden had been referring to NHS workers on the lowest salaries as a whole, he would have been correct. As he specifically referred to nurses, we’ve contacted him to ask him to correct the record.

Who gets the 9% pay rise? ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** Study doesn’t show links between children’s flu vaccines and strep A ([link removed])
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We’ve seen a large number of social media posts featuring misleading information about strep A in recent weeks. This week, a study we’ve written about before has been doing the rounds again.

It’s been claimed that a 2014 study published in the scientific journal mBio contains evidence that the nasal flu vaccine given to children can cause strep A infections.

This isn’t true. The study does not show a link between the flu vaccines and strep A infections.

What the study did find is that the flu vaccine increases the likelihood of finding two types of bacteria in the upper respiratory tract of mice.

It’s likely that there has been some confusion as some of the bacteria they found has a familiar sounding name. But the bacteria the study found, called streptococcus pneumoniae, is not the same as strep A (group A streptococcus), and does not cause strep A. The study did not find any evidence of an increased risk of severe infection or death caused by streptococcus pneumoniae in mice given the vaccine.

A UK Health Security Agency spokesperson told Full Fact: “The flu vaccine reduces the risk of having flu and group A Strep infections at the same time, therefore it reduces the chance of developing invasive Group A Strep”.

More on this study ([link removed])
CORRECTION
In our newsletter last week we wrote "it's simply not possible to estimate the number of people turned down for MP appointments". This should have read 'GP appointments'.

Thank you to all our readers who pointed this out!

FACT CHECK


** Oxford is not trialling a ‘climate lockdown’ ([link removed])
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Plans to trial a new scheme aiming to reduce traffic in Oxford have been described as a “climate lockdown” on social media, with some claiming residents will be “confined to their local neighbourhood and have to ask permission to leave”.

The plans actually involve installing traffic cameras—known as “traffic filters”—on certain roads around the city, with drivers issued with fines if they pass through the filters at certain times without an exemption or permit.

The plans have proved controversial, with thousands of local residents saying they oppose the scheme.

However, contrary to what some have claimed on social media, the scheme will not block residents from travelling outside of their local neighbourhoods or place any restrictions on where they can go other than by car.

What does the trial actually involve? ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** There are no Muslim-only no-go areas in the UK ([link removed])
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A social media graphic about Muslims in the UK has gone viral, again. The post makes a number of claims about Muslims in the UK, almost all of which are wrong, unevidenced or unlikely to be true given the information we have.

Amongst other things, the post claims there are “Muslims-Only No-Go Areas Across The UK”.

In 2015, Fox News broadcast claims from a journalist that parts of France, Britain and other places in Europe were “no-go zones” for non-Muslims.

The channel later apologised saying there was “no credible information to support the assertion that there are specific areas in these countries that exclude individuals based solely on their religion”.

There are no areas of the UK that UK law doesn’t cover or where police cannot do their work, except perhaps diplomatic premises.

A full breakdown of the false claims ([link removed])
THANK YOU
This is our final fact check round up of 2022. A huge thank you to all our weekly readers and the supporters who make all of Full Fact’s work possible. We’ll be back in January!
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