Final
Schedule 8: Consequential and minor amendments
266.Schedule 8 contains minor and consequential amendments to primary legislation.
267.Many of the amendments in this Schedule annotate powers to make pension or other benefit schemes, where applicable, to note that they are subject to the restrictions placed on the use of those powers by sections 18 and 19 (restrictions on benefits provided under existing schemes). They are not commented on further in these notes.
Paragraphs 4 and 5: Pensions (Increase) Act 1971
268.Paragraph 4 amends the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 to clarify how the uprating provisions in that Act operate on public service pensions that are either protected by the final salary link in Schedule 7 or are career average schemes to which the restrictions in sections 18(1) or 31(2) apply.
269.Paragraph 5 adds pensions made under the Act to the list of official pensions in Schedule 2 of the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971. The effect is to provide for the annual uprating of deferred pensions and pensions in payment under the mechanism which that Act provides.
Paragraph 13: House of Commons (Administration) Act 1978
270.This paragraph contains an amendment to allow members of the House of Commons Staff Pension Scheme to join the civil service pension scheme.
Paragraph 15: Local Government and Housing Act 1989
271.This paragraph amends the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to provide that where the scheme manager is a committee of the local administering authority, and that committee is also the pension board, members of the board will all be entitled to vote in proceedings of the committee.
Paragraphs 18 to 20: Pension Schemes Act 1993
272.These paragraphs amend the Pension Schemes Act 1993, in respect of schemes made under section 1, to allow a deferred pension age that is linked to state pension age (see section 10) to be greater than 65.
Paragraph 21: Merchant Shipping Act 1995
273.This paragraph makes a consequential amendment to allow a transfer of pension rights already accrued under the pension schemes run by the three General Lighthouse Authorities. The amendment enables this by allowing payments to be made out of the General Lighthouse Fund which can include a bulk transfer of pension rights.
Paragraph 26: Human Rights Act 1998
274.This paragraph makes a consequential amendment to enable UK judges of the European Court of Human Rights to continue membership of a pension scheme established under the Act when they are appointed to the European Court.
Paragraph 29: Constitutional Reform Act 2005
275.This paragraph relates to the Lord Chancellor’s function in making a scheme for members of the judiciary under section 1 of the Act. It makes this a protected function which cannot be removed from the Lord Chancellor via machinery of government changes (as the Lord Chancellor has the lead responsibility in government for maintaining the constitutional position of the judiciary).
Paragraph 30: Parliament (Joint Departments) Act 2007
276.This paragraph contains an amendment to allow members of the House of Commons Staff Pension Scheme to join the civil service pension scheme.
Paragraph 31: Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012
277.This paragraph enables active and deferred members of the Legal Services Commission who transfer into the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme on 1 April 2013 and were within 10 and 13.5 years of their pension age on 1 April 2012 to be eligible for the transitional protection available to other staff in the receiving scheme by virtue of section 18 (5) and (7).
