Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on its work on NHS pensions to remove disincentives for professionals to stay in their professions for longer.

The Government addressed the annual allowance taper issue in March 2020 by increasing thresholds by £90,000, removing all staff with earnings below £200,000 from scope. This restores the incentive to continue working or take on additional work for the majority of previously affected staff, with an estimated 96% of general practitioners and 98% of consultants now out of scope of the taper based on their National Health Service earnings

NHS England and NHS Improvement are implementing a programme to help employers to engage with senior staff to improve understanding of pension tax and to address concerns. NHS Employers has published guidance on the approaches employers can take locally to support staff who wish to continue working up to and beyond retirement age.