Judicial Pensions Act 1959
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1959 c. 9 |
Judicial Pensions Act, 1959
(8 & 9 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 9
An Act to amend the law with respect to the pensions and other benefits attaching to certain high judicial offices, to regulate the age of retirement from such offices, and to increase certain pensions and other benefits granted to or in respect of persons who have held such offices.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Rate of pension of holders of certain high judicial offices.
(1) The amount of the pension which may be granted under the relevant pension enactment to a person retiring from any judicial office listed in the First Schedule to this Act when qualified for such a pension shall be the amount prescribed by this section.
(2) Where the period of the relevant service of any such person is fifteen years or more, the annual amount of the pension shall be one half of his last annual salary.
(3) Where the period of the relevant service of any such person is less than fifteen years, the annual amount of the pension shall be as follows, that is to say—
(a ) if that period does not exceed five years, one quarter of his last annual salary;
(b ) if that period exceeds five years, one quarter of that salary plus one fortieth of that salary for each completed year of relevant service exceeding five.
2 Retiring age.
(1) A person who holds an office listed in the First Schedule to this Act shall vacate that office on the day on which he attains the age of seventy-five years.
(2) A pension under the relevant pension enactment may be granted to a person who retires from any such office, notwithstanding that he is not otherwise qualified, if at the time of his retirement he has attained the age of seventy years.
3 Option for existing judges.
(1) The foregoing provisions of this Act shall not apply to any person who holds an office listed in the First Schedule to this Act at the commencement of this Act, unless he elects that those provisions shall apply to him; and in default of such an election the annual amount of the pension which may be granted under the relevant pension enactment to any such person who retires when qualified for such a pension shall be one half of his last annual salary.
(2) Where such an election is made by a person who has attained the age of seventy-five years, subsection (1) of section two of this Act shall apply to him as if he had not attained that age until the end of the calendar year in which the election is made.
(3) An election under this section shall be made within the period of three months beginning with the commencement of this Act and shall be made in writing addressed to the Treasury.
4 Special provisions as to former holders of other judicial offices.
(1) The following provisions of this section shall apply to any holder of a judicial office listed in the First Schedule to this Act who, immediately before his appointment to an office so listed, was the holder of any other of the judicial offices described in Part I of the First Schedule to the House of Commons Disqualification Act, 1957 , being an office in respect of which pensions are payable in pursuance of any public general Act or under any other enactment, scheme or arrangements approved for the purposes of this section by the Lord Chancellor.
(2) Where a person to whom this section applies retires from his office having qualified otherwise than by virtue of subsection of section two of this Act for a pension under the relevant pension enactment, then, if he so elects—
(a ) the amount of the pension which may be paid to him under the relevant pension enactment shall be an amount equal to the pension for which he would have been eligible if he had continued to serve in his former office until his retirement at the salary then payable to a holder of that office; and
(b ) any lump sum payable in his case under Part I of the Administration of Justice (Pensions) Act, 1950 , shall be calculated as if his last annual salary were the salary payable at the date of his retirement to a holder of his former office.
(3) Where a person to whom this section applies dies while holding his office, and his legal personal representatives so elect, any derivative benefit payable in respect of him under the said Act of 1950 shall be calculated as if the pension for which he would have been eligible if he had retired at the time of his death were a pension of the amount described in paragraph (a ) of subsection (2) of this section, and as if his last annual salary were the salary payable at the time of his death to a holder of his former office.
(4) An election under this section shall be made within the period of three months beginning with the retirement or death of the person by or in respect of whom it is made, and shall be made in writing addressed to the Treasury.
5 Rate of Lord Chancellor's pension.
5. The annual amount of any pension granted under the Lord Chancellor's Pension Act, 1832, for service as Lord Chancellor shall, in the case of a person who resigns that office after the commencement of this Act, be five thousand pounds, and any Letters Patent issued under that Act before the commencement of this Act shall have effect accordingly.
6 Provision against double pensions.
(1) Not more than one pension shall be paid to the same person under the relevant pension enactments, or under those enactments and the Lord Chancellor's Pension Act, 1832.
(2) This section applies to any derivative benefit within the meaning of the Administration of Justice (Pensions) Act, 1950, which depends upon eligibility for any such pension as aforesaid as it applies to the pension.
7 Pensions granted before commencement of this Act.
(1) The annual amount of any pension payable under the relevant pension enactment to a person who retired before the ninth day of July, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine (being the date of the passing of the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1959 ) shall be increased by twelve per cent.
(2) In ascertaining the rate of a widow's or children's pension payable under Part I of the Administration of Justice (Pensions) Act, 1950, by reference to a pension which is increased under subsection (1) of this section, no account shall be taken of the increase.
(3) The annual amount of any pension payable under the relevant pension enactment, the amount of any lump sum payable under the said Part I and the annual amount of any widow's or children's pension payable under the said Part I to or in respect of a person who, at any time after the tenth day of November, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine and before the commencement of this Act, retired from an office listed in the First Schedule to this Act, or died while holding such an office, shall be the amount which would have been payable if this Act had been in force at the time of his...
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