§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when his Department first started considering the introduction of a superannuation scheme for non-teaching part-time and term-time only staff in schools; what has delayed its introduction; and when he now expects the scheme to be introduced.
§ Mr. Giles ShawRegulations to allow part-time and term-time employees to join the local government superannuation scheme were first considered by my Department in 1975. Mostly because of the large number of other amending regulations which had to be made during the period following local government reorganisation, little progress was made for some years on those for part-time employees. It was not until 1980 that, following the drafting of these complex regulations and the negotiations on them, the regulations reached the stage of the final consultation required by statute. My right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State decided at that time to postpone a final decision about the proposals until the Government had been able to consider the Scott report into the value of public sector pensions.
That report was the subject of a debate in the House at the end of October. We are now reconsidering the proposals in the light of what was said during that debate.