BMJ  2007;335:15 (7 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39265.651192.DB

News

Court lets BMA challenge government decision on GP pensions

Clare Dyer, legal correspondent

BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The BMA has been given the go ahead to take the government to court to challenge a decision to cap GPs' pensions.

The High Court has granted the BMA permission to apply for a judicial review of a decision by the former health secretary Patricia Hewitt to limit increases in family doctors' pensions, which the BMA argues breaches the new GP contract.

Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA's GPs' committee, said, "There is a very important principle at stake, which is that when the government makes agreements it should stick to them. GPs are angry about the imposed cap on their pensions because they feel they have kept their faith with the new contract and the government has broken theirs.

"We are very pleased that the court has allowed us to challenge the government on this unjustified breach of the original agreement. The government's decision is depriving doctors of the . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ