PROBATION OFFICERS AND CLERKS (SUPERANNUATION) (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 1965 (Hansard, 4 March 1965)

§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES (LORD MITCHISON)

My Lords, I beg to move that the Probation Officers and Clerks (Superannuation) (Amendment) Regulations, 1965, a draft of which was laid before the House on February 2, be approved. These Regulations are needed because of changes in the organisation of the Probation Service resulting from the Administration of Justice Act, 1964, and other changes brought about by the London Government Act, 1963. Under the existing Regulations of 1954 and 1959, certain probation staff participate in the local government superannuation scheme. Whole-time staff in the county of London are subject to the special local Act superannuation scheme of the London County Council, and as that scheme will not be available after March 31, 1965, it will be necessary to use the scheme which operates for local authority employees and probation staffs generally.

The Regulations therefore provide that from April 1, 1965, whole-time probation staff employed by the new Probation Committee for the Inner London Area shall be subject to the general local government superannuation scheme and participate in the fund of the Greater London Council. This is done by revoking Part III of the 1954 Regulations and the 1959 Regulations, which applied the special scheme of the London County Council, and by amending Part II of the 1954 Regulations to fit the particular circumstances of the Inner London Area. These circumstances are that the expenses of the Probation Committee are met, not by a local authority as is the case elsewhere, but by the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District; and that part-time probation officers in Inner London have never been superannuable. The regulations also provide that probation staff who become employed on April 1, 1965, by the new Outer London Probation Committee shall partici- 1270 pate in the fund of the Greater London Council.

The Regulations do not seek to protect the individual superannuation rights of staff in post on March 31, 1965, who will be transferred to the Inner and Outer London Committees. This will be done in an Order under Section 35 of the Administration of Justice Act, 1964, to be made by my right honourable and learned friend the Home Secretary; it will be subject to the Negative Resolution procedure.

The opportunity has been taken to make two minor changes for probation committees generally. Any appeal against a discretionary decision in the superannuation field of a probation committee by the local authority which is defraying the expenses of that committee will in future be determined by my right honourable and learned friend the Home Secretary instead of my right honourable friend the Minister of Housing and Local Government. This brings the Regulations into line with similar regulations for justices' clerks and places the duty on the Minister who is best placed to discharge it. The other change is an alteration in the formula for calculating the length of service of a whole-time officer who has previously worked part-time.

The Regulations have been drafted in consultation with my right honourable and learned friend the Home Secretary, the associations representing the local authorities, the Greater London Council, the London County Council, the Central Council of Probation Committees, the National Association of Probation Officers and the National and Local Government Officers' Association. They represent an agreed measure. I beg to move.