§ THE EARL OF SELKIRKMy Lords, I beg to move that these regulations be approved. Like many pensions regulations they are fairly complicated, but I can assure the House that the Home Secretary has consulted the Police Council, who concur in these regulations. The regulations are made under the Police Pensions Act, 1948, as amended by Section 43 of the Reserve and Auxiliary Forces (Protection of Civil Interests) Act, 1951. The points, briefly, are these. Police service in His Majesty's Forces is to be reckoned as pensionable service so far as the police are concerned and the provision is retrospective to cover service in Korea. In the second place, the benefits under the pensions scheme will be brought into line with those given by the National Insurance Act, 1951. This applies particularly to dependants, and the same principle applies to the dependants of officers who died before 1949. The next set of regulations which I shall move, which apply to Scotland, have substantially the same effect. Indeed, they are exactly the same, and in only one case is there an Order which is not already in existence.
§ Moved, That the Draft Police Pensions Regulations, 1951, reported from the Special Orders Committee on Wednesday last, be approved.—(The Earl of Selkirk.)
§ LORD SILKINMy Lords, may I ask the noble Earl whether these Regulations are retrospective to the Great War? He refers to service in Korea. How far back do they go?
§ THE EARL OF SELKIRKThey are not retrospective to, say, the Second World War, but I understand that there were provisions in existence in those days under which pensionable service with His Majesty's Forces was reckoned towards a police pension. Those provisions were not continued to the present day, and these Regulations now deal with the matter.
§ LORD SILKINWould the noble Earl look into that?
§ THE EARL OF SELKIRKI shall be glad to do so.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.