Request

You asked us:

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide copies of any internal guidance, desk instructions, or training materials used by NHSBSA staff when handling:

Applications to reinstate remedy-period service under the McCloud judgment (“opt-out buy-back” cases).

Reinstatement or continuation of Added Years or Additional Pension contracts affected by the remedy.

Practitioner-specific cases involving annualisation, GP SOLO income, or locum contributions.

Escalated “contingent decision” cases, including protocols for calculating costs, applying interest, and issuing Remediable Service Statements.

If full disclosure is not possible, please supply:

Document titles, dates, and reference numbers;

A summary of their contents;

Any exemptions relied upon.

This request is for policy and process documentation only — I am not seeking personal data.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 1 September 2025.

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

Our response

Questions 1 and 2

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 FOI-03111 - Datasets - Open Data Portal

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

Question 3

Following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the NHSBSA does not hold the requested documentation. This is because practitioner requests are calculated on a case by case basis by the Technical Consultancy Team (TCT). Annualisation does not apply to buy back costs as the reinstated service is in the legacy scheme.

Question 4

Following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the NHSBSA does not hold the requested documentation. This is because escalated contingent decisions (not related to service buy back, added years or additional pension) are referred for an individual decision to TCT. Any costs and interest would be calculated as per the McCloud regulations.

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-03141

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.