Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed changes to the NHS Pension Scheme on the retention of (1) trauma, and (2) orthopaedic, surgeons.

The Department recently consulted on a range of pensions measures, including new retirement flexibilities to enable National Health Service staff to work more flexibly up to and beyond retirement age, and changes to scheme rules to address inflation. The Department confirmed on 7 March 2023 that it intends to implement the measures as planned.

The changes will remove barriers for experienced staff, including trauma and orthopaedic surgeons, retiring and returning to work and will allow them to draw down some or all of their pension but continue working and building more pension benefits. Staff affected by Annual Allowance (AA) charges will be able to reduce pensionable pay on partial retirement to avoid AA charges without necessarily reducing overall work commitments.

By fixing the unintended impacts of inflation, the changes will also help to retain senior clinicians affected by pension tax who might otherwise reduce their workloads or take early retirement.