Request

Q.1) From 2007-2024, how many Permanent Injury Benefit (PIB) Applications, exceeded the Statutory time frame for applying for PIB, by,

1. more than 6 months to 12 months?

ii. more than 1 year to 5 years,?

iii. 5 years to 10 years,?

iv. 10 years to 20 years,?

Q.2.) From your answer in Q.1) above,-

i..how many in each group of i.-to-iv. were accepted and PIB paid out to the PIB Applicants?

ii. what were the categories/types of reasons recorded for the late PIB Applications that were granted (aka payable) in each of the groups of i.-to-iv.?

Q.3) From 2003-2007, did the NHS (Pensions Scheme/Regulations)-require, or have, a document to be published, (for instance a leaflet/booklet/welcome pack/letter)- to inform NHS (new) employees information of the consequences and/or options of applying for a refund of Pensions Contributions?

Q.4). From 2007-2024, how many refunded NHS Pension Contributions Claimants, were repaid, (and a Pension Membership resumed),

1. more than 6 months to 12 months?

ii. more than 1 year to 5 years,?

iii. 5 years to 10 years,?

iv. 10 years to 20 years,

-after being refunded /paid their Pensions Contributions?

You subsequently clarified question 4 as follows:

I'm requesting data on NHS Pension Members who were paid a refund of their pension contributions and then rejoined the NHS Pension Scheme repaid the refund, and re-joined the Scheme within the time span cited at Q.4). i.)-iv.)

I note your statement that the NHS Pension Scheme regulations state a member has 6 months to repay a refund from the date they rejoin the Scheme,-however,-your office might find after conducting research,-,data that would show the numbers of NHS Pension Members who were paid a refund of their pension contributions and then rejoined the NHS Pension Scheme repaid the refund, and re-joined the Scheme within the time span cited at Q.4) i..)-iv.).

If your FOI office colleagues research finds no recorded information of the time spans cited at Q.4) i.)-iv.),-then,-I would accept in the alternative a time span that your office has recorded.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your clarified request on 24 October 2024.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

Question 1 & 2

We have considered this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and are issuing a refusal notice under section 17 of the FOIA.

The NHSBSA does hold the requested information; however, we estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the appropriate limit under section 12 of the FOIA. In order to establish how many PIB applications from 2007 onwards exceeded the time frame for applying for the benefit, a manual interrogation of each record would be required to establish the reason for rejection.

We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the non-central Government limit of £450. The limit has been specified in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the NHSBSA holds the information, and locating, retrieving, extracting and checking the information.

Please see the following calculations which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request:

From January 2007 to present, 950 PIB records have been created. It would take approximately 15 to 20 minutes to manually search each record – this would equate to (5 x 950) / 60 = 238 hours’ worth of searching at a minimum.

Please be advised that due to the way that the information is held by the NHSBSA, it is not possible to submit a refined request under the appropriate limit.

Please see the following link to view the section 12 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12

Question 3

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information it is attached.

These documents are scanned copies of the following guides:

Scheme Guide - September 2003

Please see page 19 of the PDF for information on leaving the scheme and taking a refund of pension contributions

Scheme Guide - September 2007

Please see page 21 of the PDF for information on leaving the scheme and taking a refund of pension contributions

Leaving The Scheme - June 2003

Please see page 8 of the PDF for information on taking a refund of pension contributions

Leaving The Scheme - August 2007

Please see page 9 of the PDF for information on taking a refund of pension contributions

You may also find the following online archive useful:

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/*/http:/www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/

Archived versions of NHSBSA’s website can be viewed here.

Question 4

We have considered this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and are issuing a refusal notice under section 17 of the FOIA.

The NHSBSA does hold the requested information; however, we estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the appropriate limit under section 12 of the FOIA. To answer this question, we would need to determine the date a member took a refund, then the date that the refund was repaid in full. This information is not held in a format which allows a quick automated report to be generated. Determining these dates would require a manual interrogation of pension records.

We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the non-central Government limit of £450. The limit has been specified in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the NHSBSA holds the information, and locating, retrieving, extracting and checking the information.

Please see the following calculations which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request:

Between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2024, 270,153 members have received a refund, then have returned to the scheme.

Each record would take approximately 5 to 10 minutes to search for the exact dates these occurred – this would equate to (5 x 270,153) / 60 = 22,513 hours’ worth of searching at a minimum.

Please be advised that due to the way that the information is held by the NHSBSA, it is not possible to submit a refined request under the appropriate limit.

Please see the following link to view the section 12 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

Reusing the data and copyright

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 2024” 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.