Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many general practitioners in England retired during the past 12 months; and, of those, how many were aged under 60 at the time of retirement.

For the last 12 months for which data is available, (the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016) 992 general practitioners retired and claimed retirement benefits from the NHS Pension Scheme in England and Wales.

Of these, 580 were under 60 years of age.

General practitioners, in common with other staff groups, are able to claim retirement benefits and return to the National Health Service. This may be on a full time or part-time basis. This is common practice but exact numbers are not known.