Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I am submitting the following request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please answer the questions below and the disclose the figures requested.

1. The number of NHS pension scheme joiners, per month, over the last 10 full financial years (e.g., April 2013, May 2013, June, 2013). This should date back to 2012/13;
2. The number of NHS pension scheme leavers, per month, over the last 10 full financial years (e.g., April 2013, May 2013, June, 2013). This should date back to 2012/13; and
3. The number of NHS pension scheme rejoiners, per month, over the last 10 full financial years (e.g., April 2013, May 2013, June, 2013). This should date back to 2012/13 The figures should include members who have opted out and in more than once during the same financial year, if possible. Please also disclose, where possible, the reason(s) why a member has rejoined the NHS pension scheme after previously opting out.

We subsequently provided you with the following options:

A re-joiner can either be considered someone who has returned to the NHS Pension Scheme after previously opting out OR someone who has commenced a new post following retirement – please clarify which you are interested in?

• Identifying if a new post is following a previously opted out post is possible.

• Identifying if a new post is following a retirement is more complicated, as the member may have claimed their pension from a previous scheme, and returned into a different scheme. These events maybe unconnected, or the member may have been forced to take a 24 hour break (essentially stopping their current post, to re-join two days later), which may not be considered a true ‘re-joining’. Additionally, Partial Retirement will not be tracked, as the member will be shown in concurrent active service while drawing down part of their pension.

To which you responded:

I prefer the first type of re-joiner (starting a new post). As you rightly pointed out, this does not reflect what I am looking for.

Your clarified request was received on 13 June 2023 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

Reasons for re-joining

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. This is because we do not record the reason for an opt-out or opt-in.

Remaining information

A copy of the information is attached. Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data. Please note that these figures should not be used to measure the ‘growth’ of the scheme in any way.

An additional column has been included showing the estimated volume of active membership at the end of each period – this is calculated based on the starting volume, plus the joiners and minus the leavers. This is not the actual volume of active members on a given date. The actual volume of active membership on 31 March 2023 was 1,883,213 and is shown at the bottom. The estimated data is short by approx. 6,000 members compared to the actual membership on the 31 March 2023.

Definitions:

• A joiner is considered someone who commenced a pensionable post with NHS Pensions, who was not already contributing on a concurrent post.
• A re-joiner is considered someone who has returned to the NHS Pension Scheme after previously opting out
• A leaver is considered someone who has stopped their contributions, and has not continued paying contributions in a concurrent role. This includes anyone who has terminated their employment, retired, opted out, or died in service.

Caveats:

• If a member opted out of ‘auto-enrollment into the NHS Pension Scheme’ upon commencing their role, we will have no evidence of the post or their status of being opted out.
• If a member has returned to the pension scheme after previously opting out, we will not know if this means they are returning to the same post, or if they are commencing a new post.
• If a member has opted out of the pension scheme, we will not know if they are still working in that post, and eligible to re-join, or if they have subsequently left that post after opting out.
• No reasons are held for why a member opts out or opts in
• A member will be counted once in each period where they meet the above criteria; this means they could potentially be considered a Joiner and a Leaver in every period over the 10 years – this is extremely unlikely, though simply makes the point that these volumes will be incomparable to any other metrics published which count individual members once, and these figures will not be able to be used to measure the growth of the scheme in any way.
• This type of data shifts continuously and is only reflective of our records on the date it is provided. Due to the allowance of record amendments retrospectively, these figures may fluctuate as more up-to-date information is added to the member record in future.
• The data provided in this FOI response counts all members who joined, left, or re-joined the scheme, including those working in clinical and non-clinical roles.

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.