§ 2.39 p.m.
§ LORD MANCROFT rose to move, That the Justices' Clerks and Assistants (Superannuation) Draft Regulations, 1954, reported from the Special Orders Committee on Wednesday last, be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, the three Motions standing in my name on the Order Paper are all concerned with the same principle. I will move them separately but, with your Lordships' permission, I will try to explain them together as briefly as I can. These Regulations are made under the Local Government (Superannuation) Act, 1953, which your Lordships passed about this time last year. Like most things connected with superannuation these Regulations are, I am afraid, very complicated. Speaking broadly, they provide for a new system of benefits based on rather smaller annual pensions. They also provide for widows' pensions and for the grant of a lump sum on retirement, which I believe is an innovation. They also provide that existing employees shall have the right to choose between the old benefits and the new and, similarly, that retired married employees or their widows shall have a right to choose between what they now get and what they would get under these new Regulations.
§ I should like to emphasise that extensive consultations have taken place with all the organisations and bodies concerned, and a general measure of agreement has been obtained. I remarked just now that these Regulations are complicated. My right honourable friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government therefore intends to circulate a memorandum for the information of those concerned, explaining in simple terms how those persons are involved and what their benefits and obligations may be. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Justices' Clerks and Assistants (Superannuation) Draft Regulations, 1954, reported from the Special Orders Committee on Wednesday last, be approved.—(Lord Mancroft.)
§ EARL JOWITTMy Lords, may I ask a question? I do not wish to delay proceedings, but I remember that when we 123 set up these magistrates' courts committees—the idea being to have a whole-time justices' clerk instead of a series of part-time justices' clerks—some trouble arose about superannuation. I remember it very well in my time—it is rather an echo from the past. The point was this. On the one hand, unless the officials could be properly compensated for losing their positions it was unlikely that anything would be done—for natural and obvious reasons. On the other hand, there were the purists from the Treasury who said that there was no ground for compensating people who were losing only part-time employment. I think I have got the point correctly. It is rather an echo from the past, as I say. There was a very real difficulty, and I was asked to do what I could to solve it. As the noble Lord has said, these Regulations are extremely complicated, and I cannot find out what they do. I should be grateful if the noble Lord, Lord Mancroft, or the noble Lord, Lord Lloyd, could tell me whether these Regulations solve that problem and if so, in what manner that particular problem has been solved.
THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (LORD LLOYD)My Lords, as my noble friend Lord Mancroft has said, the details are somewhat complicated, but in general principle the problem has been resolved, and justices' clerks have, I think, come very well out of this scheme. They are the only people I know who will in future be superannuated for part-time employment. I know of no other category of people who are in that position. Therefore, I think that, on the whole, that problem has been solved to the satisfaction of the justices' clerks—and, I hope, to the satisfaction of the noble and learned Earl.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.