The National Health Service Pension Schemes (Partial Retirement etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Amendment of Schedule 2

17.  In Schedule 2 (medical and dental practitioners), after paragraph 12, insert—

Partial retirement pension

12A.— (1) In the case of members who are or have been practitioners, regulations E5A (partial retirement pension) and E5B (increase in pensionable pay following exercise of option under regulation E5A) are modified as follows.

(2) Regulation E5A is modified so that—

(a) the reference to holding pensionable employment in paragraph (1)(b) is treated as a reference to engaging in pensionable employment;

(b) the condition in paragraph (1)(c), for the reduction of the member’s pensionable pay to 90% or less of the member’s pensionable pay during the period of 12 months ending with the option day, is treated as a condition for the reduction of the member’s engagement in such employment to 90% or less of its pre-change level;

(c) paragraph (2) is omitted;

(d) the requirement in paragraph (3), for a statement in writing by the member’s employing authority that the conditions in paragraph 1(b) and (c) are met, is treated as a requirement for appropriate supporting evidence and a statement in writing approved by the host Board that the conditions in paragraph 1(b) and (c) are met;

(e) the requirement in paragraph (7)(a), for the pension to which the member becomes entitled to not be less than the amount of the pension payable by reference to 20% of the member’s pensionable service at the end of the option day (disregarding any additional benefits), is treated as a requirement for the pension to which the member becomes entitled to not be less than 20% of the pension that would have been payable if the member had ceased to be employed in all of his employments at the end of the option day (disregarding any additional benefits);

(f) for the purposes of regulation E5A—

(i) “pre-change level” means the level of the member’s engagement in the employment referred to in regulation E5A(1)(a)(iii) during the period of 12 months ending with the option day; and

(ii) “pension” means the pension that a member would have been entitled to on the option day if the member had ceased to be employed in all of his employments and, in the case of practitioner services, the pensionable earnings taken into account when working out the pension will be drawn from the latest certificate referred to in paragraph 23 of this Schedule (accounts and actuarial reports), or the latest scheme year’s final pensionable earnings referred to in paragraph 10 of this Schedule (contributions to this Section of the scheme), and agreed with each relevant host Board.

(3) Regulation E5B is modified so that—

(a) the condition in paragraph (1)(b), for the member’s pensionable pay to increase to more than 90% of the member’s pensionable pay during the period of 12 months ending with the option day, is treated as a condition for the level of the member’s engagement in the employment or employments referred to in regulation E5A(1)(a)(iii) to increase to more than 90% of the member’s pre-change level;

(b) for the purposes of regulation E5B—

(i) “pre-change level” has the meaning given in paragraph (2)(f)(i);

(ii) a member’s “employment” means practitioner service together with any concurrent NHS employment.”.