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Mr. Ian Stewart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to extend the survivor benefits under public servicepensions schemes to persons other than widows, widowers or children. [99390]Mr. Andrew Smith: As set out in December 1998 in the Green Paper "A New Contract for Welfare: Partnership in Pensions" (Cm 4179),the Government are prepared to consider how practicable arrangements could be devised for a statutory pension scheme to extendsurvivor pensions to unmarried partners of scheme members, if the general membership of the scheme sought that change and if schememembers were prepared to meet the costs of it. There is no central policy on whether such a change should be made by any publicservice scheme. It is a matter for the Department responsible for each public service pension scheme, in the light of the wishes ofthe membership of each scheme. |