POLICE PENSIONS REGULATIONS 1966 (Hansard, 7 December 1966)

§ LORD BOWLES
My Lords, in the regrettable absence of my noble friend Lord Stonham, I beg to move that the Police Pensions Regulations 1966, a draft of which was laid before the House on November 15, be approved. I hope that the House will welcome these consolidated Regulations because they bring together in one instrument the provisions of the Police Pensions Regulations 1962 and the eight subsequent sets of amending Regulations. They apply in England and Wales, and in Scotland, in the same way as the former Regulations and, in revoking and restating those Regulations, this consolidation provides a badly needed comprehensive code in relation to the past as well as for the future. I would emphasise that the Regulations in no way affect entitlements of existing pensioners whose rights are fully safeguarded.
Some changes have been introduced into the pensions code, to which I should draw attention. Two of them are largely administrative, and I will refer to these later. The others are either minor or clarify Regulations where the present wording is not sufficiently clear. An example of a minor change is one relating to the calculation of the pension payable to an officer who is injured on duty. In calculating, or reviewing, such a pension the officer's degree of disablement is taken into account; but under the existing provisions only the degree of disablement arising from the injury which occasioned the grant of the pension may be so considered, even though the degree of disablement is increased as a result of some other injury on duty coming to light later on. The new Regulation 107 provides that in cases of future retirements the degree of disablement attributable to any injury on duty shall be taken into account.
1154 An example of clarification is Regulation 12A(4) of the 1962 Regulations, which provides that the gratuity payable to a widow whose husband's death resulted from an attack or injury received in effecting an arrest shall be calculated by reference to the pay of a constable in a police force. At that time police pay rates were uniform throughout the country. Earlier this year constables in the City of London and Metropolitan Police forces were granted supplementary pay of £50 a year. The new Regulation makes it clear that the gratuity shall be calculated by reference to the pay of a constable in the police force of which the husband was a member.
I will now explain briefly the two administrative changes to which I referred earlier. The first relates to the financial arrangements for a police authority to discharge its liability in respect of the accrued pension entitlement of an officer who has transferred to another force. The present arrangements are that the authority pays an apportioned contribution towards the eventual pension which is payable by the police authority of the force in which the officer last serves. The Regulations provide instead that the liability known as the transfer value shall be discharged at the time of transfer by an immediate lump sum payment "to the authority to which the officer has been transferred". This is a common method of discharging pension liabilities in cases of transfer between public employments and is familiar to the local authorities who will operate it. The main provisions giving effect to this change are contained in Regulations 62 and 64 and Schedule 7.
The other change concerns the aggregation of service for pension purposes in the case of officers who have served in the police and in the civil service or in civilian employment which is in effect superannuable on Civil Service terms by reason of the Metropolitan Police Staff (Superannuation) Acts. The existing authority for the aggregation of such service is contained in Section 10 of the Police Pensions Act 1921, which was preserved by the Police Pensions Act 1948 pending the introduction of new transfer arrangements on the lines of those applying generally in the public 1155 service. So far as they concern persons leaving or entering police service, these new transfer arrangements are contained in Regulations 38 and 65 and Schedules 4 and 7 to the Regulations. But in relation to persons leaving or entering the other employment involved in the transfer, it is necessary for those provisions to be complemented by further rules to be made by the Treasury and the Home Secretary under the Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948, which is the general Statute concerned with transfer provisions for the public service. If these Police Regulations are approved, the related transfer rules, which are subject to Negative Resolution procedure, will come into operation on the same date, that is to say, January 1, 1967.
The new arrangements will govern transfers which are completed on or after the date when the provisions come into operation, but the provisions of Section 10 of the Police Pensions Act 1921 will still govern the entitlement to aggregate service in the case of officers who have completed their transfers before January 1, 1967. These two administrative changes will facilitate the integration of the Police Service into the public sector superannuation network.
Finally, the House should know that these Regulations, including the changes made in them, have been drawn up by the Departments in full consultation with the local authority and police associations concerned, and have been agreed by the Police Council for Great Britain. My Lords, I beg to move.

§ LORD SANDFORD
My Lords, I am sure we are all grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Bowles for that full and detailed explanation of these Regulations. In view of his explanation, and in the light of the Report from the Special Orders Committee, I think there is nothing further which need detain us from giving approval to the Regulations. It is gratifying that, for once, the rules to which the noble Lord referred are not to come into force until after the Regulations have been approved by Parliament.
1156 I think that all noble Lords will feel that this is a suitable opportunity for us to ask that a message be conveyed to the noble Lord who was to have moved this Motion, conveying to him our prayers and best wishes for a thorough recovery.

§ LORD BOWLES
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his kindly suggestion, and I will see that it is put into operation.