Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of senior doctors working in the NHS.

NHS Digital statistics, as at July 2020, showed that, in England, there were almost 40% more full time equivalent consultants and almost 12% more specialty and associate specialist doctors employed in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups since 2010.

The Government has delivered on a manifesto commitment to fix the taper issue in doctors’ pensions, in response to evidence of senior clinicians turning down additional work for fear of high tax bills. The tapered annual allowance thresholds have increased by £90,000 from 6 April 2020, which removes up to 96% of general practitioners and 98% of consultants from the scope of the taper based on their NHS income. The incentive to take on additional work is now restored.

We are also taking action to increase the retention of doctors and support them to progress into long careers. For example, the Enhancing Junior Doctors’ Working Lives programme, led by Health Education England, is delivering a range of initiatives to improve the quality of life of doctors in training.

NHS workforce matters in Northern Ireland are a matter for the Devolved Administration.