Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Spring Budget 2023, HC1183, published on 15 March 2023, if he will make an estimate of the number of doctors who will stay in the NHS as a result of the (a) abolition of the lifetime allowance on pension savings and (b) raising of the annual allowance on pension savings.

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. Estimates based on projected pension scheme data indicate that around 22,000 senior National Health Service clinicians could exceed the previous £40,000 annual allowance in 2023/24, and that around 31,000 clinicians had reached at least 75% of the £1.073 million lifetime allowance.

These measures will also ensure that the vast majority of doctors in the NHS are not disincentivised from remaining in their roles and taking on extra hours, enabling them to treat as many patients as possible and helping to deliver on the Government’s NHS commitments.