HL Deb 06 March 1979 vol 399 cc167-8WA
Lord O'HAGAN

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How far the pension rights of British civil servants seconded to the institutions of the EEC are protected.

Lord PEART

A serving civil servant who is loaned to an EEC institution while his Department continues to bear the cost of his salary, remains covered by the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme. A civil servant who is temporarily seconded to an institution of the EEC may continue to reckon his service under the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme as if he remained in his last Civil Service grade, provided that he or the EEC institution meet the cost. Alternatively, he may be treated in the same way as those who are permanently transferred. A civil servant who transfers permanently to an institution of the EEC (whether immediately or after a period of secondment) will, if he has completed five years' service in the Civil Service, have his Civil Service pension and lump sum, calculated at the time of leaving the Civil Service, preserved for payment from age 60 with appropriate pensions increase. If he has less than five years' service, he may choose to transfer to the EEC staff pensions scheme that part of his accrued Civil Service pension rights that exceeds the guaranteed minimum pension required to be preserved under the Social Security Pensions Act 1975.