COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 20 April 1893)

LORD VERNON

moved to insert after the clause the following:— (1.) "Where a pension is in pursuance of tie Police Act, 1890, granted to a constable on the scale applicable to partial disability for earning a livelihood, the police authority may, within three years from the grant of the pension, if satisfied by the evidence of some legally qualified medical practitioner or practitioners selected by the police authority that the disability attributable to the injury received in the execution of duty has become total, increase the pension to the amount allowed by the provisions of the scale applicable to total disability. He said this clause would correct an omission in the Police Act, 1890. By that Act officers injured when on duty were pensioned on a higher scale when totally than when only partially disabled. By Sections 5 and 6 if an officer was totally disabled the pension on the higher scale was granted only temporarily, and might be reduced if he recovered sufficiently to be able to partially earn his living, but no provision made where a partial injury resulted in total disability. That omission required to be remedied, and circumstances had in fact occurred which rendered the Amendment desirable.

LORD VERNON

said the next Amendment proposed was that— This section shall apply in the case of all pensions granted since the commencement of the Police Act, 1890. The provisions of Subsection 2 of Section 13 of the Police Act, 1890, shall apply to any constable in receipt of a pension who is appointed to any office remunerated out of any parochial, district, or other rate. The constable was not, while filling that office, to receive more than the amount which, together with the remuneration from that office, would be equal to one-and-a-half times the remuneration of the office in relation to which his pension was accorded. The next was as to the powers of investment of pension funds, and it was really the only crucial point in the Bill— A police authority, in addition to the powers of investment conferred by Section 18 of the Police Act, 1890, may invest the capital of the pension fund in debentures or mortgages issued or made by a Comity Council in pursuance of the powers conferred by Section 69. Subsection S, of the Local Government Act, 1838. The police funds were authorised by the Act of 1890 to be invested in County Council stock, but not in debentures or mortgages issued by County Councils. The Government had a vested interest in the pension funds of the police, and it was to their interest to see that those funds were securely invested. They had thought it advisable to bring in this Amendment, the accounts being subject to audit by the district auditors of the Local Government Board. In the case of boroughs the security offered was not the same as in the case of County Council debentures or mortgages, for they were already overburdened with debt, and their accounts were not subject to the same independent audit as the county accounts. That was the pith of the whole thing. There was no security in the case of boroughs that the sinking fund for repayment of the loans would he maintained. Cases had actually occurred before the Police Act of 1890 where money lent to Town Councils had been spent by them without any provision for repayment. Their Lordships would agree that it, was most essential care should be taken that- the funds which were the capital of such a body of men as the police should be invested in securities not likely in any way to fluctuate or decrease. Then the next clause cor- 734 rected a mistake in the Act of 1890. It was that— In Schedule L (11) (c) of the Police Act, 1890. for the words ('where a constable has, in the course of the three years next before the date of his death or retirement, been in more than one rank') shall be substituted the words (' where a constable at the date of his retirement or death holds a rank to which he has been promoted with the three years previous'). It was intended that when an officer had been promoted within three years of retirement his pension should be calculated on an average of the last three years' pay of his service. Sections 1, 2, and 3 were so worded as to include the case of an officer who had been degraded. A case had recently occurred of an officer degraded from the rank of superintendent to that of constable, and he had claimed and obtained his pension on his superintendent's salary. The Metropolitan Police Commissioners supported this view of the matter, and their Lordships would agree that there was no intention that a man degraded for bad conduct should be at once able to resign on his superintendent's pay. He hoped their Lordships would agree to these Amendments.