Request

Please consider my revised request of the time span cited in my questions 1.), 2.) & 3.), below; my rrevised requested time span is from 2004-2010, (&/or from a appropriate time span that your FOIA office can manage without incurring costs).

Previous request:

FOI-02336

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.).

Response

Question 1 & 2

Q.1) From 2004-2010, 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.?

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 2004 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 2004 to 2010, 7,500 PIB records have been created. It would take approximately 15 to 20 minutes to manually search each record – this would equate to (15 x 7,500) / 60 = 1,875 hours’ worth of searching at a minimum.

Please note that in our previous response we made a typing error in our calculations and from 2007–2024 there were 9,500 PIB records and not 950.

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

Q.3) From 2004-2010, 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? 

Under Section 21 of the FOIA we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.

The information you requested is available from the following web link:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02336

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

Question 4

Q.4). From 2004-2010, 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?

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 requested 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:

107,999 members have had a refund between 01/04/2004 and 31/03/2010 and have returned to the scheme after their refund.

Each record would take approximately 5 to 10 minutes to search for the exact dates these occurred – this would equate to (5 x 107,999) / 60 = 8,999 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