Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the tapered annual allowance on the number of Defence Medical Service doctors leaving the armed forces.

The Secretary of State for Defence and Chancellor of the Exchequer have not yet discussed this particular issue. However, given concerns expressed by Defence Medical Services personnel and the well-publicised discussions in the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care, the Ministry of Defence has consulted internally on pension taxation, including the issue of tapering.

We recognise the current situation with pension taxation (including tapered annual allowance) is a risk to retention and are monitoring any associated increase in the outflow of personnel. To date, monitoring suggests no apparent increase in the voluntary outflow of Medical Officers, but we accept this might change in the future.