Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2014 to Question 217522, what the (a) pension payments and (b) other salary arrangements are for NHS staff while deployed to Ebola-affected regions.

Staff deployed as part of Her Majesty’s Government programme with the Department for International Development (DfID) and UK-Med are being released by their employing organisation and will return to their post after deployment, unless otherwise agreed between the individual and their organisation. They will continue to be remunerated in line with normal arrangements. Pension payments and their normal salary continue to be paid by their employer. The reasonable costs of backfill, to enable them to be released from their normal duties to carry out this work, is paid through a grant from DfID, administered through UK-Med.

Individuals who choose to deploy independently outside the UK International Emergency Medical Register process are responsible for agreeing directly with their NHS employer their release, return, and any salary and pension arrangements.