Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many NHS employees in England there were who did not pay into the NHS Pension Scheme in each year since 2010.

The following table provides an estimate of the number, and percentage, of National Health Service staff in England on the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) who did not pay into the NHS Pension Scheme as at April of each year since 2010.

Notes:

¹The percentage of scheme non-members is based on staff identified on the ESR Data Warehouse with no employers’ pension contribution made on their behalf in the March of each year.

²Percentages do not cover general practices and other organisations that are excluded from or choose not to use ESR for payroll functions.

³The ESR Data Warehouse is a monthly snapshot of the local ESR payroll systems. The ESR Data Warehouse is unvalidated.

⁴The number of scheme non-members is estimated by multiplying NHS Digital’s published headcount of staff in NHS trusts and CCGs at 31 March each year by the percentage of scheme non-members estimated from ESR data.

⁵It should be noted that it is not appropriate to conflate these estimates with NHS Pension Scheme membership counts derived from NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) data. The NHSBSA collates active membership data on all NHS pension scheme members across primary care in England and Wales. The ESR Data Warehouse is a monthly snap shot of the live ESR system. This is the HR and payroll system that covers all NHS employees other than those working in general practice, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and organisations to which functions have been transferred, such as local authorities. Figures are for England only.