To ask the Minister of Health whether he has given any consideration to pension provision for community pharmacists delivering health service-commissioned services.

Access to the HSC Pension Scheme is legislated for under The Health and Social Care Pension Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 and is limited to health service workers who are: employed by HSC employers; are an HSC contractor/provider or those employed by them – this includes GPs and dentists.

For private employers that are too small to have their own pension scheme, they can meet this obligation through the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) Pension Scheme. NEST is a government-backed workplace pension scheme accountable to Parliament through the Department for Work and Pensions and is run on a not-for-profit basis. It is used by employers across the UK, including Northern Ireland (NI), to meet their automatic enrolment obligations. The purpose of the scheme is to ensure that all eligible workers have access to a workplace pension. Information on the scheme can be accessed at https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/nest.html