FOI-02555

Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

##Request 

‘I would like to make an FoI request regarding the delays relating to Remedial Pension Savings Statements. 

(a)     How many NHS staff, affected by the McCloud judgement, in total were due an RPSS statement?  

(b)     How many of these NHS staff (see answer to (a)) were sent their RPSS statement by 31st January 2025 

(c)     Of those who were sent an RPSS statement by 31st January 2025 (see answer to (b) above) - how many had also been sent their 2023/24 Annual Allowance Statement. 

Additional questions on the same matter:- 

(d)     How many times has the published final delivery date for RPSS statements to be sent by – moved and from what dates to what dates? 

(e)     How many NHS staff at 1st February 2025 were still awaiting both their RPSS statement and 2023/24 Annual Allowance statement 

(f)     When is the estimated latest date for the RPSS statements to be delivered? 

(g)     Do you have enough resource to meet the latest deadline in (f)?’ 

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 29 January 2025.  

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. 

##Our response 

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some of the information you have requested. Please read the notes below to ensure correct understanding of the data. 

##Question (a) - How many NHS staff, affected by the McCloud judgement, in total were due an RPSS statement? 

137,665 members affected by the Public Service Pensions Remedy (McCloud), had their pensionable service between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 moved from the 2015 Scheme to the 1995/2008 Scheme and need a Remedial Pension Savings Statement (RPSS). 

##Question (b) - How many of these NHS staff (see answer to (a)) were sent their RPSS statement by 31st January 2025? 

56,773 members have had an RPSS sent to them by 31 January 2025. 

##Question (c) - Of those who were sent an RPSS statement by 31st January 2025 (see answer to (b) above) - how many had also been sent their 2023/24 Annual Allowance Statement? 

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.  

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.   

3,906 of the 56,773 members identified in Question (b) have a 2023/24 Annual Allowance record on file.  

However, we would need to manually interrogate each file to determine if a statement has been sent and check which year the statement relates to. We estimate it would take 2 minutes per record checked. 

Please see the following calculations which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request: 

3,906 x 2 minutes = 7,812 minutes (130.2 hours) 

##Question (d) - How many times has the published final delivery date for RPSS statements to be sent by – moved and from what dates to what dates? 

The below dates show the version history for https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/public-service-pensions-remedy-mccloud/understanding-effect-rollback-annual-allowance, and the text which was updated confirming the estimated final delivery dates. 

31 October 2023  

We’ll be sending the majority of active or deferred remedy members their remediable pension savings statement from April 2024 onwards.  

6 March 2024  

We’ll be sending the majority of active or deferred remedy members their remediable pension savings statement from October 2024 onwards.   

7 March 2024  

We will send the majority of active or deferred remedy members their remediable pension savings statement by October 2024.  

11 September 2024  

Every Public Service Pension Scheme is working through significant complexity to put in place the Public Service Pensions Remedy for all affected members.  

As the largest Scheme, the NHS Pension Scheme has made substantial progress towards implementing the remedy so affected members can make their choice with confidence. However, the challenges facing all Schemes mean we need to update the timings for when this choice will be available, and when members can expect to receive their choice communications. We recognise that this means members are waiting longer than planned, and apologise for the delay.  

02 October 2024  

We have started sending out RPSS letters from October 2024 to members who need them.  

06 December 2024  

For any other members who need an RPSS but haven’t received one yet, we expect to have sent the majority by the end of February 2025, though there are a small number of members who will need manual calculations, which may take longer. 

##Question (e) - How many NHS staff at 1st February 2025 were still awaiting both their RPSS statement and 2023/24 Annual Allowance statement 

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.  

Until 2023/24 Annual Allowance Statements are calculated, for all NHS Pensions members, we are unable to identify this figure. 

##Question (f) - When is the estimated latest date for the RPSS statements to be delivered? 

We have considered this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA 2000) and are issuing a refusal notice under section 17 of the FOIA.  

The NHSBSA does hold the requested information; however, we consider that this information is exempt from disclosure under section 21 of FOIA. This provides an exemption from the duty to disclose information where this is reasonably accessible to an applicant by other means. 

This information is already available in the public domain and can be accessed at: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/public-service-pensions-remedy-mccloud/understanding-effect-rollback-annual-allowance 

Please see ‘Your Remediable Pension Savings Statement (RPSS)’ and the drop down ‘If you have not received an RPSS yet’ for the latest timescales: 

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21 

##Question (g) - Do you have enough resource to meet the latest deadline in (f)? 

We are unable to answer this question as this does not fall under the scope of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as it is a general query rather than a request for recorded information held by the NHSBSA. 

As the largest of all the Public Sector Pension Schemes, the complexity and scale of the challenge has meant it's taking us longer than we planned to get an RPSS to everyone who needs one. We're working hard to deliver them as soon as possible and are increasing service delivery capacity within the NHS Pensions team with measures such as overtime, recruiting additional staff, and upskilling and redeploying current staff.  

##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. 

##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 2025” 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. 

Tags: NHS Pensions, RPSS, Remedial Pension Savings Statement
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log