Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of doctors that have left the NHS due to the (a) lifetime and (b) annual allowance cap on pensions savings in each of the last five years.

The decision to claim pension benefits or reduce working commitments is a personal one, and it is not possible to assess the impact of a specific factor. A recent survey undertaken by the British Medical Association suggested that 72% of doctors will retire earlier because of the previous decision to freeze the lifetime allowance and 61% of respondents stated that they would reduce the amount of work that they do for the National Health Service.

As announced at Budget, the annual allowance will increase to £60,000 from 6 April 2023 and the lifetime allowance will also be abolished. These measures will ensure that the vast majority of doctors in the NHS are not disincentivised from remaining in roles and taking on extra hours, as pension tax is no longer a trigger event for retirement.