Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits for reducing the normal pension age for ambulance workers under the NHS Pension Scheme to bring it into line with the retirement age for police and fire service workers.

Police and fire service workers generally pay higher pension contributions than ambulance staff. Giving ambulance workers the same normal pension age as police and fire service workers would require higher contributions from all NHS Pension Scheme members, and there are currently no plans for such a change.

Under flexible retirement options, ambulance workers can retire before normal pension age with an actuarially reduced pension or access the Early Retirement Reduction Buy Out option to retire up to three years earlier without a reduction, with costs that may be shared with their employers.