To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost of employer contributions to the NHS pension scheme was in each year between 1990-91 and 2005-06; and if she will make a statement. (101287)

Information from 1990-91 to 2004-05, the latest year that pension scheme accounts are available, is show in the following table. Increases in contributions in 2000-01 and 2001-02 reflect the phased increase in employers contributions following the 1994 valuation of the scheme, which was published in October 1998. The figures from 2003-04 include changes in relation to the Retail Price Indexation for existing pensioners for which funding was devolved from Her Majesty's Treasury to the Department of Health in 2003-04, and which was fully devolved to scheme employers from 2004-05. It is proposed as part of the review of the national health service (NHS) pension scheme that there will be a cap on employers' contributions of 14.2 per cent., from 2012, when the 2008 valuation is expected to be implemented, and of 14 per cent. from 2016.