Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the numbers of GPs who have left the NHS pension scheme aged between (1) 50 and 55, and (2) 55 and 59, years old in (a) 2015, (b) 2016, (c) 2017, and (d) 2018.

The information is not collected in the format requested and to obtain it would incur disproportionate cost. The NHS Pension Scheme is administered by the NHS Business Services Authority, who do not collect data on the number of retirements in the specific age groups requested.

General practitioners (GPs) may leave the scheme for various reasons, such as claiming a pension on normal age grounds at or beyond normal pension age, claiming a pension early on ill-health grounds, claiming a pension on voluntary early retirement grounds, or opting out of the scheme. Information is not currently available on the number of GPs who have opted out of the scheme disaggregated from broader scheme membership.