Nurse Pay in the UK and Ireland: Bands and Salaries 2026/27

A newly registered nurse in England starts on £32,073 from 1 April 2026. In Scotland the same nurse starts on £34,544. In Wales, £32,557. In Northern Ireland they are still on last year's rates, because no 2026/27 award has been implemented there.

Those four numbers are the whole story of UK nursing pay: one job, one qualification, four different answers. This guide sets out every band, the London supplements, unsocial hours enhancements and the Irish scales, with the circular behind each figure.

England: Agenda for Change from 1 April 2026

The current year is 2026/27, a 3.3 per cent consolidated uplift on all pay points, announced on 12 February 2026 on the recommendation of the NHS Pay Review Body's 39th report and implemented by pay advisory notice 02/2026.

Where nurses sit: Band 2 and 3 are healthcare assistant roles, Band 4 is typically a nursing associate, Band 5 is the newly registered nurse, Band 6 a senior or specialist nurse, Band 7 a ward manager or advanced practitioner.

Progression is time-served, not automatic promotion: two years from entry to top in Bands 2 and 3, three years in Band 4, and in Bands 5 to 8a two years from entry to intermediate, then two more years in Band 5 or three in Bands 6, 7 and 8a.

Band 2 has no range at all

This is worth stating because readers assume every band has a scale. Band 2 entry and top are both £25,272, an hourly rate of £12.92 at either end. Band 1, closed to new entrants, is the same figure.

That is National Living Wage compression. The statutory floor from 1 April 2026 is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, which leaves almost no room below Band 2. And Band 3 entry at £25,760 is only £488 above the entirety of Band 2 — so moving from a Band 2 to a Band 3 role is worth under £10 a week before tax.

London weighting

High Cost Area Supplements are paid on top of basic salary, with a cash floor and ceiling in each zone:

• Inner London: 20 per cent of basic salary, minimum £5,794, maximum £8,746
• Outer London: 15 per cent, minimum £4,870, maximum £6,137
• Fringe: 5 per cent, minimum £1,346, maximum £2,270

The floors and ceilings genuinely bite. A Band 5 nurse at entry in inner London receives the full 20 per cent, taking them to £38,488. At the very top of the pay spine the ceiling applies instead of the percentage. Which trusts fall into which zone is set out in Annex 8 of the NHS terms and conditions handbook, and is not reproduced here.

Unsocial hours

Under Section 2 of the handbook, enhancements for nurses in England are:

• Bands 4 to 9: plus 30 per cent for all day Saturday and weekday nights between 8pm and 6am; plus 60 per cent for all day Sunday and public holidays
• Band 3: plus 35 per cent and plus 69 per cent
• Band 2: plus 41 per cent and plus 83 per cent

Three rules matter in practice. Saturdays and Sundays run midnight to midnight. If more than half of a continuous weekday evening or night shift falls between 8pm and 6am, the enhanced rate applies to the whole shift. And enhancements are calculated on basic salary excluding High Cost Area Supplements, so a London nurse does not get unsocial hours on their weighting.

Scotland pays more at the lower bands — Band 2 plus 44 and plus 88 per cent, Band 3 plus 37 and plus 74 — while Bands 4 to 9 match England.

Scotland: a longer spine and higher rates throughout

Scotland settled a two-year deal under circular PCS(AFC)2026/1, issued 23 January 2026: 4.4 per cent for 2025/26, revised up from 4.25 per cent when an inflation guarantee triggered, and 3.75 per cent for 2026/27. Each year carries a guarantee of at least one percentage point above average CPI.

Scotland is ahead of England at every band, and the gap is not trivial. A newly registered Band 5 nurse starts £2,471 higher and tops out £3,996 higher. Scotland also keeps far more increments — five pay points in Band 5 against England's three, and six in Bands 6 to 8a.

Wales

Wales took the same 3.3 per cent headline, applied by circular AfC(W) 02/2026 of 12 February 2026, but to its own scales.

Wales sits slightly above England throughout, and its floor is higher: Bands 2 and 3 both start at £26,300 because of a Living Wage Foundation commitment, against £25,272 and £25,760 in England. Allowances from 1 April 2026 include sleeping in at £44.82 and on-call at £52.08 for a public holiday or £26.05 otherwise.

Northern Ireland: still on 2025/26 rates

This is the most important practical point in the guide for anyone working in Northern Ireland. No 2026/27 Agenda for Change award has been implemented.

The Department of Health's workforce policy guidance for 2026 contains no circular implementing a 2026/27 pay award. On 12 February 2026 the Health Minister noted the 3.3 per cent recommendation and said he wanted to proceed with it, but made that explicitly conditional on his budget position becoming clear, with a stated ambition that increases reach staff as early as possible in the incoming financial year rather than a firm date.

There is also a pattern worth knowing. The last implemented award, 2025/26 under circular HSC (AfC) 06/2025, was effective from 1 April 2025 but not paid until February 2026 — roughly eleven months late.

Current confirmed Northern Ireland rates are therefore the 2025/26 scales, which matched England's 2025/26 figures: Band 5 £31,049 to £37,796, Band 6 £38,682 to £46,580, Band 7 £47,810 to £54,710. Band 2 is given inconsistently across two official sources, so it is not quoted here.

Ireland

Irish scales were last adjusted on 1 June 2026 by HSE HR Circular 007/2026, a 1 per cent increase under the Public Service Agreement 2024 to 2026 — the final adjustment under that agreement. All figures are euro.

• Staff Nurse: 13 points from €38,166 to €56,592
• Clinical Nurse Manager 1: 9 points from €57,780 to €70,087
• Clinical Nurse Manager 2: 11 points from €62,699 to €79,227
• Clinical Nurse Manager 3: 6 points from €72,146 to €81,478
• Advanced Nurse Practitioner: 9 points from €72,843 to €89,894

Two notes. The Advanced Nurse Practitioner variants for community and primary care, children's and intellectual disability nursing carry the same rates as the general grade. And separate scales exist for mental health and theatre nursing which are not reproduced here.

One caveat on the English figures

The 3.3 per cent announcement stated that pay structure reforms remain under discussion through the NHS Staff Council, and that once agreed some staff would receive additional increases backdated to 1 April 2026, with stated priorities of raising pay at the lowest bands and improving graduate pay across professions.

Both of those would land directly on nurses: the Band 2 and 3 compression described above, and Band 5 entry. No agreement appears to have been reached. Anyone planning around the Band 5 range should treat it as potentially subject to retrospective revision.

What the numbers mean side by side

For the same job, a newly registered nurse at the bottom of Band 5 earns £32,073 in England, £32,557 in Wales, £34,544 in Scotland and £31,049 in Northern Ireland. The spread between the best and worst paid is £3,495, or about 11 per cent, and it is driven entirely by which administration employs you.

Add inner London weighting and the English figure becomes £38,488, which overtakes Scotland — but only in the most expensive housing market in the UK.

For the professional requirements that sit alongside the pay, see how Australia regulates nurses, midwives and doctors through one agency, how Canadian requirements vary by province, and how India requires 30 continuing education credits of nurses every five years.