HC Deb 29 January 1958 vol 581 cc418-9

Motion made, and Question proposed, That the Clause stand part of the Bill.

Mr. D. Jones

I want to raise one point on line 21. The Clause reads: Where a member of a home police force is, with the consent of the appropriate authority, appointed under section one of this Act for a limited period… There is some doubt in the minds of some of the authorities concerned as to what exactly a "limited period" means.

It is obvious that the Bill protects the rights and puts into cold storage, as the Minister said on a previous Clause, the pension provisions for persons who are in pensionable employment in this country. When they return after a period in an overseas territory they are entitled to claim that proportion of the pension earned while they were in the service in this country. Concern is felt by some people as to what these words mean, for instance, in a case where police officers are seconded for special periods of duty in overseas territory. There is, for example, the case of a county police officer who responds to one of the advertisements which appear from time to time of vacancies in Colonial Territories. With the consent of the employing authority the officer undertakes the duty and he is abroad for what to all intents and purposes is a permanent and not a limited period.

When such officers return to this country, are they entitled to have had their pensions put into cold storage in the way that civil servants, teachers, people in the health service and others are entitled? There seems to be some doubt in the minds of employing authorities in the case of the police as to whether the two types of pension, home and overseas, are covered.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

The hon. Member for The Hartlepools (Mr. D. Jones) has raised a very important point and I am very glad to have the opportunity, through replying to him, of setting any fears at rest. The purpose of the Clause is to provide for individual police officers from forces in England, Wales and Scotland whose services are made available to overseas Governments on a temporary basis. The hon. Member is quite right to ask what would be the position of those police officers who are, in effect, permanently transferred to service under the Bill. My answer is that it is intended to make regulations under Section 1 (4) of the Police Pensions Act, 1948 to cover such officers.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause ordered to stand part of the Bill.