Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of guidance provided to NHS staff considering partial retirement under the NHS partial retirement scheme in relation to the potential impact on future redundancy entitlements.

Partial retirement does not mean that National Health Service staff are ineligible for redundancy payments. However, taking partial retirement may change the way in which contractual redundancy payments are calculated.

The rules concerning the calculation of redundancy payments for National Health Service staff who have previously taken pension benefits are determined in accordance with their contracts of employment, and statutory redundancy entitlements.

Redundancy terms for NHS staff on the Agenda for Change contract are set out under section 16 of the NHS Staff Terms and Conditions of Service handbook. This also applies to NHS staff whose redundancy terms refer to section 16. This section states that service used for the purposes of calculating previous pension benefits will not count for the calculation of a contractual redundancy payment. Statutory redundancy entitlements are unaffected.

The Department commissions NHS Employers to provide guidance for employers on a range of topics, including NHS redundancy arrangements and retirement options for NHS staff. The NHS Employers guidance clearly sets out the position in relation to partial retirement and redundancy.