§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will list the offences or acts of misconduct under which a civil servant in her Department could have his pension removed or reduced; and how often this has happened during the last five years. [70780]
§ Mr. Paul MurphyThe Forfeiture Act 1970 provides for the automatic loss of pension rights where a person is convicted of treason.
The rules of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (Northern Ireland PCSPS (NI)), which provides pension benefits for staff in the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICs), give the Department of Finance and Personnel, the administrators of the Scheme, discretionary power to withhold benefits where a civil servant or former civil servant is convicted:
- (i) of one or more offences under the Official Secrets Acts 1911 to 1989 for which the person concerned has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of at least ten years or has been sentenced on the same occasion to two or more consecutive terms amounting in the aggregate to at least ten years or more; or
- (ii) of an offence in connection with any employment to which the scheme applies, and a Minister of the Crown certifies that the offence is gravely injurious to the interests of the State or is liable to lead to serious loss of confidence in the public service.
The rules regarding the Home Civil Service (HCS) are as follows:
Under the rules of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme, the Minister for the Civil Service has the power to withhold pension benefits where a Civil Servant or former Civil Servant is convicted under the Official Secrets Act 1911 to 1989 to at least 10 years in prison or convicted of offences deigned to have been gravely injurious to the State or be liable to lead to serious loss of confidence in the public service.The above rules apply to the Home Civil Servants employed in the Northern Ireland Office.
584WThe discretionary forfeiture provisions, which apply to both the NICS and the HCS, have not been applied in the last five years.