pension taxes – known as the annual allowance taper – were introduced by former chancellor George Osborne in April 2016.

The rules are extremely complicated but, in short, anyone earning more than £110,000 a year will be hit with a tax bill depending on how much they put into their pension. The higher their salary and the more they pay into their pension, the heftier the tax bill. The Treasury stressed that the review will primarily focus on the impact on doctors and other public sector employees. But if they were to overhaul the system completely, then all high-earning workers would be affected, including those in the private sector.

Only two weeks ago, Mr Hancock launched a consultation into doctors’ pensions which proposed allowing them to halve the amount theyin West London, is one of thousands of doctors to have cut back on their hours

Anesthetist Tom Dolphin has seen dozens of operations cancelled because of the mounting pensions crisis.

The consultant, 40, who works at a hospital in west London, is one of thousands of doctors to have cut back on their hours. He has reduced the number of days he works by about three a month.

Mr Dolphin, who earns about £85,000 a year, said: ‘As doctors, we want to help our patients but we are being financially penalised for doing so.

‘Doing one extra shift can get you a £5,000 tax bill. The NHS system relies on doctors working overtime.

‘The issue has come to a head in the past couple of months and it will only get worse