POLICE PENSIONS (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS 1963 (Hansard, 18 March 1963)

§ THE MARQUESS OF LOTHIAN

My Lords, I beg to move that the Draft Police Pensions (Amendment) Regulations, 1963, be approved. I shall not take up much of your Lordships' time in introducing these Regulations, which are entirely consequential upon the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1962. They apply to England, Wales and Scotland. The Police Councils for England and Wales and for Scotland have been consulted and the Regulations go forward with their approval. The Pensions (Increase) Act, 1962, like previous Pensions (Increase) Acts, applies to police pensioners but not to police widows and dependants who are left to be dealt with by Police Pensions Regulations. This is for technical reasons of drafting: the graduated increases in the Act cannot appropriately be applied to the flat-rate increases in the Regulations and some awards are related to National Insurance rates and are, therefore, increased separately. So it is necessary for us to seek the approval of the House for the Regulations.

The draft Regulations provide that where a widow's pension is related to a proportion of her late husband's pay, then the Act of 1962 shall apply as if the pension were covered by the Act itself. Where a pension or allowance is on a flat rate, a new flat rate is substituted at the maximum rate of 12 per cent. and an age-70 increase of £20 subject to a limitation if the increase exceeds one quarter of the pension. The Regulations also provide that an increase in a child's allowance shall be payable so long as the allowance is payable under the 1962 Regulations. The Regulations are drafted in such a way as to have effect restro- 944 spectively to January 1 of this year, which was the date when the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1962, came into force. I beg to move.