Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing locum nurse practitioners to contribute to existing NHS pension funds.

The NHS Pension Scheme is an occupational scheme, and locum nurse practitioners cannot access the scheme if they are employed via an agency or are self-employed.

No assessment has been made of the impact of allowing locum nurse practitioners to join the scheme.

It would be possible for longer-term locum staff to become substantively employed on fixed-term contracts as a flexible resource, for instance by primary care organisations. In doing so, they would have access to the scheme.