Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the consultation into flexibility in the NHS Pension Scheme.

The Department will shortly be consulting on proposals to provide increased flexibility to senior clinicians in the NHS Pension Scheme. As announced by my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 7 August, the new consultation will provide flexibilities which go beyond the previous 50:50 option by enabling pension accrual and contribution rates to be varied – for example 20:20, 40:40 or 70:70.

The new proposals will allow senior clinicians to maximise their contribution to the National Health Service without unexpected tax penalties and whilst sustaining growth in their pension savings.

We intend to publish the consultation in week commencing 9 September.

The Government recognises the urgency in tackling this issue, so NHS Employers published guidance last week on possible local approaches that employers can consider taking immediately to mitigate the impact of pension tax on their workforce this tax year.