I am writing to confirm that I have now completed my search for the information which you requested on 12 December 2022 as outlined below:

Last year you provided me with a response to the question below [Ref FoI 19172] in relation to the 2019/20 financial year. Could you now supply me with a similar response on the same terms but on this occasion for the 2020/21 financial year?

Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to obtain information regarding General Practitioners who reported pensionable pay of £100,000 or more in latest year for which full data is available [20/21 if possible].

To outline my query as clearly as possible, I am requesting:

1. The total number of General Practitioners who reported pensionable pay equal to, or in excess of £100,000 in latest year for which full data is available, broken down by employing authority with which their practice(s) is registered.

2. The total number of General Practitioners who reported pensionable pay equal to, or in excess of £200,000 in latest year for which full data is available, broken down by employing authority with which their practice(s) is registered.

3. The total number of General Practitioners who reported pensionable pay equal to, or in excess of £300,000 in latest year for which full data is available, broken down by employing authority with which their practice(s) is registered.

4. The total number of General Practitioners who reported pensionable pay equal to, or in excess of £400,000 in latest year for which full data is available, broken down by employing authority with which their practice(s) is registered.

5. The total number of General Practitioners who reported pensionable pay equal to, or in excess of £500,000 in latest year for which full data is available, broken down by employing authority with which their practice(s) is registered.

6. The total number of General Practitioners who reported pensionable pay equal to, or in excess of £600,000 in latest year for which full data is available, broken down by employing authority with which their practice(s) is registered.

7. The total number of General Practitioners who reported pensionable pay equal to, or in excess of £700,000 in latest year for which full data is available, broken down by employing authority with which their practice(s) is registered.

8. If you can answer Question 1 through to Question 7 for the 2021/22 financial year then please provide this information as well.

Note: Please can the data be supplied on the same basis as that which was supplied to me for a similar FoI question {Ref: 8817} in relation to the 2018/19 financial year.

Response

A copy of the information is attached. The data provided is for the NHS Pension Scheme year 2020/2021.

Please note that in England, all GPs fall under one employing authority; NHS England. In Wales the employing authority for a GP is the relevant Local Health Board where they are geographically located.

For members to have been counted in this data, the requirement is that the members have one open practitioner post. An open post is defined as any post open within the year. For example, the member has one pensionable day in a practitioner post between 01/04/2020 and 31/03/2021. These posts may no longer be open and may not have been open at year end 2021. If individuals have multiple concurrent posts, non-practitioner service may have been added into the pay bracket calculations. Therefore, not all the income shown in the attached data may be attributable to practitioner employment.

Fewer than 5 in Wales

Please be aware that I have decided not to release the full details where the total number of pension members falls below 5 at Welsh Health Board level. This is because the pension members could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available.

This information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3A (a) of the Freedom of Information Act.

This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as:

a) it is not fair to disclose pension members’ personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress.

b) these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of the pension members.

Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing, or producing a press article based upon the data please contact nhsbsa.foirequests@nhs.net 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 nhsbsa.communicationsteam@nhs.net. 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: “NHS Pensions, NHSBSA Copyright 2020” 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.