Boots and the PDA Union have issued a joint statement announcing there will be a pay increase for trainee pharmacists, in England and Northern Ireland who start work this summer.

The new pay rates will be effective from 1 August and will be applied centrally in the August pay run:

Trainee pharmacists working in Boots pharmacies in Wales are employed directly by the NHS and are therefore outside the scope of the pay negotiations between Boots and the PDA Union.

Funding for each Boots trainee pharmacist in Scotland is at a higher level, and Boots continues to pass on the fully funded amount as salary to those team members.

This increase comes on top of a rise agreed in April, when trainee Pharmacists in England and Northern Ireland saw their hourly rate of pay increase to £10.90.