§ Dame Patricia Hornsby-Smithasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in view of the shortage of various categories of qualified consultants in the National Health Service, he will review the procedure under which consultants are compulsorily retired at 65 years of age and thereafter re-employed on a sessional basis and lose part or all of their superannuation, according to their earnings, if re-employed in the National Health Service, yet do not do so if they work in private practice or abroad.
§ Sir K. JosephHospital boards may, at their discretion, re-employ consultants who have reached age 65; my Department and the profession have, however, agreed that it is important that the promotion propects of younger practitioners should not be impaired. Consultants are subject to the rules that apply in one form or another throughout the public service for the abatement of pension on re-employment therein. The effect is to reduce their pensions only to the extent that, when added to re-employment earnings, they exceed earnings from the public service at the time of retirement. The244W underlying principle is that the purpose of superannuation is to provide a pension to help maintain the person after he has retired, and it has been a consistent policy for many years to regard the payment of remuneration from public funds in addition to a unabated pension beyond the limit described as not being justified when the recipient is still in public service employment for a substantial part of his time.
§ Mr. Michael Cocksasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the total number of part-time consultants employed in the National Health Service for each of the years from 1948 to 1970.
§ Mr. AlisonThe numbers of part-time medical and dental consultants with regular paid appointments in National Health Service hospitals in England and Wales in the years from 1959 to 1970 are set out below; comparable figures for years before 1959 are not available.
Year Number 1959 4800 1960 4877 1961 4982 1962 5050 1963 5075 1964 5106 1965 5301 1966 5394 1967 5489 1968 5552 1969 5618 1970 5710