General Practice Pensions Data for England

Record-level, identifiable pension contributions data is provided to NHS England by the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA).

NHS England produces a record-level data set which is then supplied to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC uses the data supplied to adjust the earnings of contractor and salaried GPs to take account of pension contributions.

HMRC links the data with an individual’s tax records to produce summary, aggregate, non-disclosive estimates of GPs’ earnings and expenses in accordance with a specification agreed with the key stakeholder group, the Technical Steering Committee (TSC).

This enables NHS England to estimate average earnings and expenses data (gross earnings, expenses, income before tax) for GPs, which are published annually in the GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates Official Statistics. The primary purpose of the publication is to support the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Renumeration (DDRB) in making annual recommendations regarding renumeration for GPs.

The report is also required by government and health departments in England as well as a range of other stakeholders including GPs and their representatives.

This Notice is served on:

• NHS BSA

The first collection of data took place in 2014-2015 and has been collected annually since. The data collection is ongoing.

The pension contributions data NHS England collects from NHS BSA is two years behind the published GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates data. For example, 2020-2021 pension data will be supplied to NHS England by 1 February 2024 and used to calculate an adjustment factor that will be supplied to HMRC and used to calculate the average earnings for the 2022-2023 GP Earnings and Expenses Official Statistics.

Due to the timing of the self-assessment tax returns process, the processing of data (including GP pensions data) used to support the publication of GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates Official Statistics cannot begin until the end of the following tax year and the Official Statistics are not published until approximately 16 months after the end of the applicable financial year. For example, the GP Earnings and Expenses Estimates for 2021-2022 were not published until August 2023 - the earliest point at which the figures could be produced.

Future years’ submission dates will be notified to data providers but are expected to run to a similar time frame each year.

Publication timetables are yet to be confirmed but the data is likely to be published in August of each year.