FOI 25-339 Ill-Health Dismissal Pensions
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-339 Ill-Health Dismissal Pensions
- Request Date
- 06 Aug 2025
- Response Date
- 12 Sep 2025
- Information Requested
I am requesting non-personal information relating to policies and practices for staff dismissed due to ill health and later re-employed. Specifically, if available please provide:
- Copy of any internal policy or guidance on dismissal for ill health, including reemployment procedures.
- Details of any policy regarding reinstatement of pension service for reemployed staff in such circumstances.
- Data (anonymised) from the past 10 years indicating:
- Number of staff dismissed due to ill health;
- Number subsequently reemployed;
- Number whose pension contributions or service credits were backdated or reinstated.
- Any internal communications (anonymised) or meeting notes discussing whether pension service gaps should be remedied in such cases.
- Response
- The Scottish Ambulance Service adhere to the NHS Attendance Management Policy for ill-health dismissals - Attendance Policy Overview | NHS Scotland
Staff who are dismissed due to ill health can either:
- Appeal the dismissal which could lead to reinstatement
or
- Follow the standard recruitment processes and be employed subject to medical clearance and service needs. This would be counted as a new employment and not a reinstatement of employment.
- I have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held. The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold any such policy regarding the reinstatement of pension service for re-employed staff. On the occasion where an employee has been dismissed and reinstated from the date of dismissal (usually following an appeal), this would be considered as no break in employment and pension payments would be reinstated. Each case would be reviewed individually in line with the guidance set by the Scottish Public Pension Agency (SPPA) - NHS | SPPA
- Please see the table below detailing the number of employees dismissed due to ill-health and the number of staff that have returned to work.
For the given data, you will see that some of the figures are shown as, five or less than five, please note that this figure has been suppressed because the statistical value is less than five. The Scottish Ambulance service has a duty, under the Data Protection Act to avoid directly or indirectly revealing any personal details. It is therefore widely understood that provision of statistics on small numbers, five or less are statistically suppressed upon disclosure.
Year
Total Dismissed
Total Re-employed
2024
21
<5
2023
51
<5
2022
31
0
2021
23
0
2020
20
0
2019
34
0
2018
19
0
2017
25
0
2016
38
0
2015
29
0
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold any information on staff who have had their pension contributions or pensions credits reinstated. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002, as information not held.
- Pension Service gaps would be discussed on an individual basis as this is dependant on the circumstances of each individual (i.e. whether Ill-Health retirement benefits were claimed etc). It is also important to note that not everyone pays into a pension scheme when dismissed through ill-health.
There’s a distinction between creating new information and compiling information already held. Where a request can be answered by compiling information from readily available resources held by the public authority, this is not the same as creating new information. However, if collation of the information would require skill and complex judgement, the information is not held.
To provide the information requested, we would have to apply complex skill and judgement from multiple teams to examine each individual personnel file of anyone who has been dismissed through ill-health, consult with the SPPA to see whether that person claimed a pension and collate the information in a reportable format. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
The Scottish Ambulance adheres to the guidance set by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency. NHS | SPPA
