NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE (SUPERANNUATION) REGULATIONS, 1961 (Hansard, 20 July 1961)

§ LORD NEWTON

My Lords, I beg to move that these Regulations be approved. It may be convenient to your Lordships to discuss with them the Scottish Regulations, which are similar and which, if your Lordships are agreeable, my noble friend Lord Craigton will move formally. The Regulations which I am presenting now provide for the superannuation of some 350,000 persons engaged in the National Health Service in England and Wales. There are 89 Regulations, plus five schedules, and they are enshrined in this little book of 119 pages. I recommend them strongly to your Lordships, but not as bedside reading. This, however, is almost entirely a consolidating operation. The main changes in the scheme, such as they are, are set out on pages 118 and 119 in the Explanatory Note—and that is not exactly light Literature either.

I think that I need mention only two of the main changes. First, Regulations 10 and 35 provide that an officer who would be eligible for injury allowance but for the fact that he is receiving other substantial benefits—for example, under the Industrial Injuries Act, shall have his contributions returned to him if he is not entitled to any benefit of any kind under the scheme. From his point of view, this is a good innovation. Secondly, Regulation 18 provides that unpaid sick leave shall no longer count as reckonable service for pension. However, if an officer's service is terminated because of sickness or injury he will be able to come back into the scheme without any disqualifying period after three years, or even longer at the discretion of the Minister, instead of after only one year, Which is the rule et present. This provision meets a point which the nursing profession regards as important.

My Lords, all these recommendations have been the subject of detailed consultation with more than twenty organisations representing staff and professional interests, including the Royal 785 College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the British Medical Association, the British Dental Association and the Joint Trade Union Committee for the National Health Service. One or two of the organisations have differed about one or two of the provisions; but, broadly speaking, all these regulations are acceptable to those who have been consulted. It is not expected that there will be any significant change one way or the other in the total cost falling upon the Exchequer. I beg to move.