Parliamentary Pensions (Hansard, 24 May 1988)

§ Mr. Wakeham

During the passage of the Parliamentary and other Pensions Act 1987 there was a feeling among some Members of the House that the time had come for a review of certain features of the parliamentary pension scheme. In my written answer of 24 July at column502, I explained that I had, therefore, invited the TSRB to review aspects of the scheme, the pensions of the Prime Minister, the Speaker and the Lord Chancellor, and ministerial severance pay. The report was published today and a copy has been placed in the Library of the House. I would like to thank the review body for the time and effort it has devoted to these issues.

The TSRB recommends revised early retirement arrangements under which a full accrued pension would be payable from a "pensionable age" of between 60 and 65, depending on length of service at the date of leaving the House. When the pension is brought into payment before the pensionable age it would be subject to an abatement, to be calculated on a broadly actuarial basis. The TSRB also recommends that the death in service gratuity should be two years' salary. We will be consulting the trustees of the parliamentary pension scheme on these and the other recommendations affecting the scheme itself, including the 104W suggestion that the holders of the office of Prime Minister and Speaker be allowed to participate in it. Depending on the outcome of those consultations, the Government would expect to lay before the House regulations under the Parliamentary and other Pensions Act 1987.

The remaining recommendations, and that proposing that the Speaker and Prime Minister be allowed to participate in the parliamentary scheme, will require legislation to amend the Parliamentary and other Pensions Acts. We will bring this forward in due course.

We accept the TSRB's recommendations that the holders of the offices of Prime Minister, Speaker and Lord Chancellor should be entitled to pensions of half final salary, that the cap on pensions increases payable to former office holders should be removed and the recommendations on ministerial severance pay. We propose that these arrangements should apply after the necessary Bill has received Royal Assent.