§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to amend the health service superannuation scheme to enable part-time staff to receive on retirement a pension entitlement equivalent to that paid to someone with the same total number of years service who has achieved that service in full-time employment.
§ Mr. DorrellWe have no plans to change the present arrangements. Pension benefits for full-time and part-time staff are calculated according to a common principle, which is standard pensions practice. Both are related to length of service and the amount of pay received at retirement. In practice, any part-time service is reduced to its equivalent full-time length and the pension calculated by reference to a notional whole-time rate of pay. To treat part-time officers as though they had worked full-time would be to credit them with service which had not been earned and for which no financial contribution had been made.