POLICE PENSIONS (LINCOLNSHIRE) (Hansard, 13 March 1967)

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Miss Alice Bacon)
I beg to move, That the Police Pensions (Amendment) Regulations, 1967, a draft of which was laid before this House on 21st February, be approved. These amending Regulations make a small Amendment to the Police Pensions Regulations, 1966, in consequence of the Lincolnshire Police Amalgamation Scheme, 1967. The amalgamation scheme was approved on 4th February and comes into operation on 1st April next. There are at present in Lincolnshire three police forces with one chief constable. They are the police forces of Parts of Holland, Kesteven and Lindsay. On 1st April, the police forces for these three divisions and the police forces for Grimsby and Lincoln will be amalgamated.
Police pension matters in the existing separate forces for the three divisions of Lincolnshire have up to now been managed through what was known as the Lincolnshire Joint Police Superannuation Fund, and the Police Pensions Regulations have made special provision in respect of this arrangement. This special provision is contained in Regulation 96 of the Police Pensions Regulations, 1966. The whole of Regulation 96 refers to the special circumstances existing in Lincolnshire. I should mention that this arrangement has been unique in that no similar arrangements operate in any other group of police forces.
On amalgamation, the combined police authority—the three divisions of Lincolnshire, Grimsby and Lincoln—will administer police pensions matters for the newly created force so that the existing arrangements in Lincolnshire will cease to have anything other than historical significance. But in these changed circumstances it will be necessary, for the purposes of the Police Pensions Regulations, for the former separate forces for the three divisions of Lincolnshire to be treated as though they had been one force. The amending Regulations now before the House make the necessary provision by substituting a new Regula- 6 tion for the existing Regulation 96 in the 1966 Regulations.
This amendment has been agreed by the Police Council for Great Britain.

§ Sir David Renton (Huntingdonshire)
I thank the right hon. Lady for the explanation which she has volunteered for this short and simple amending Regulation, but I have one question to put. We know that there are a great many amalgamations of police forces to follow. Will there have to be an amending Regulation following each amalgamation, or is this a special case? If it is a special case, what makes it so? What makes it different from all others? There is nothing on the face of the amending Regulations or in the Explanatory Note to make clear why the amalgamation of these Lincolnshire forces puts them in a category different from any other type of amalgamation.
So that we may have the position clear for the future, will the right hon. Lady be good enough to explain the point?

§ Miss Bacon
I thought that I had explained it, but I shall try to make the matter clear. There will be no need to have other amending Regulations for other amalgamations. The reason for there having to be this amending Regulation for Lincolnshire is that Lincolnshire is unique inasmuch as the County of Lincoln now has three separate police forces with one chief constable.
If the right hon. and learned Gentleman has the Police Pensions Regulations, 1966, before him, he will see that Regulation 96 is concerned solely with Lincolnshire. This is so because of the special position in Lincolnshire. There has been the Lincolnshire Joint Police Superannuation Fund bringing together the funds of the three separate forces in a way which is not done in any other part of the country, and there had to be that special Regulation in the Police Pensions Regulations, 1966. The present amending Regulation merely makes the necessary amendment in respect of that special case. Because of the amalgamation of the three parts of Lincolnshire, with Grimsby and Lincoln, the original Regulation No. 96 will no longer apply. This is a substitution for the original Regulation 96. It is a unique case because of the special 7 circumstances previously existing in Lincolnshire.