Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to make the NHS Pension Scheme a tax unregistered scheme to help increase senior consultant retention.

The Government has no plans to introduce a tax unregistered pension scheme for the National Health Service. The majority of NHS Pension Scheme members can build their pensions tax-free and an unregistered arrangement would remove this tax relief on contributions and a tax-free lump sum of up to 25% of the value of their pension on retirement. The Government has asked NHS England to work with NHS organisations to introduce schemes to allow recycling of employer pension contributions to high earners who opt out of the NHS Pension scheme due to the impact of pension tax.