The Public Service (Civil Servants and Others) Pensions (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022

Citation and commencement

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Public Service (Civil Servants and Others) Pensions (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022.

(2) These Regulations shall come into operation on 18th March 2022 and shall have effect—

(a)in respect of regulations 9, 11, 12, 26, 27, 30 and 31 retrospectively from 1st February 2019;

(b)in all other respects, retrospectively from 1st April 2015.

Amendments to the Public Service (Civil Servants and Others) Pensions Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014

2. The Public Service (Civil Servants and Others) Pensions Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014(2) are amended as follows.

Amendment of regulation 2

3. In regulation 2 (Interpretation)—

(a)in the definition of “accrued club transfer earned pension”, in paragraph (b), for “amount of description” substitute “amount of a description”,

(b)for the definition of “active member”, substitute ““active member” has the meaning given in regulation 2A;”;

(c)at the appropriate place insert—

““additional adoption leave” means additional ordinary adoption leave under Article 107B of The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(3);”;

(d)at the appropriate place insert—

““additional maternity leave” has the meaning given in regulation 2(1) of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999(4);”;

(e)omit the definition of “additional paternity leave”;

(f)for the definition of “adoption leave”, substitute—

““adoption leave” means ordinary adoption leave or additional adoption leave;”;

(g)at the appropriate place insert—

““child-related leave” means adoption leave, maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave or shared parental leave;”;

(h)for the definition of “connected scheme”, substitute—

““connected scheme” has the meaning given in regulation 2B;”;

(i)in the definition of “description of added pension”, in paragraph (a) omit “and”,

(j)in the definition of “index adjustment”—

(i)in paragraph (a), for “that scheme year” substitute “the previous scheme year”;

(ii)in paragraph (b), for “that scheme year” substitute “the previous scheme year”;

(k)in the definition of “maternity leave”, omit the words after “additional maternity leave”;

(l)at the appropriate place insert—

““ordinary adoption leave” means ordinary adoption leave under Article 107A of The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(5);”;

(m)in the definition of “partial retirement earned pension”, in paragraph (b) after “(if any);” insert “and”

(n)for the definition of “partnership pension account”, substitute—

““partnership pension account” has the meaning given in regulation 2C;”;

(o)at the appropriate place insert—

““pensionable service”, in relation to a pension scheme, means service which qualifies a person to a pension or other benefits under that scheme;”;

(p)at the appropriate place insert—

““PCSPS(NI) partial retirement option” means the option exercisable under rule—

(q)at the appropriate place insert—

““shared parental leave” has the meaning given in regulation 3(1) of The Shared Parental Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015(6);”;

(r)in the definition of “statutory pay”—

(i)in paragraph (c), omit “ordinary”;

(ii)for paragraph (d) substitute—

“(d)statutory shared parental pay within the meaning of section 167ZU (Entitlement: birth) or section 167ZW (Entitlement: adoption) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992(7);”;

(s)omit the definition of “surviving nominated partner”;

(t)at the appropriate place insert—

““surviving partner” has the meaning given in regulation 101;”;

(u)in the definition of “transition member”, for “Paragraph” substitute “paragraph”

(v)for the definition of “weekly rate”, substitute—

““weekly rate”, in relation to a guaranteed minimum pension, means, in cases where the pension is paid otherwise than at weekly intervals, a rate which is equivalent to the earner’s guaranteed minimum having regard to the period in respect of which the pension is paid;”.

New regulations 2A, 2B and 2C

4. After regulation 2 (Interpretation), insert—

“Active Membership

2A.—(1) A person (P) is an active member of this scheme if—

(a)P is in pensionable service under this scheme; or

(b)P is not in pensionable service under this scheme and paragraph (2) or (3) applies.

(2) This paragraph applies if P is on unpaid authorised absence.

(3) This paragraph applies if—

(a)P is in scheme employment;

(b)P is on unpaid sick leave or on unpaid child-related leave; and

(c)P was an active member of this scheme, the PCSPS(NI) or another permitted pension scheme immediately before that leave began.

(4) In this regulation “another permitted pension scheme” means, in relation to P, a pension scheme approved by the scheme manager for the purposes of this regulation.

Connected Schemes

2B.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), “connected scheme” means another statutory pension scheme that is connected, within the meaning of section 4(6) of the Act, with this scheme.

(2) The following schemes are not connected schemes—

(a)an injury or compensation scheme established under section 1 of the Act;

(b)an injury or compensation scheme established under Article 3 of the 1972 Order; and

(c)a statutory pension scheme that is a defined contributions scheme.

Partnership Pension Account

2C.—(1) In these Regulations, “partnership pension account”, in relation to a person in scheme employment, means a pension scheme that has been approved by the scheme manager for the purposes of this regulation.

(2) The scheme manager must not approve a pension scheme for the purposes of this regulation unless it is—

(a)an occupational pension scheme, a stakeholder pension scheme or a personal pension scheme;

(b)a defined contributions scheme; and

(c)a pension scheme to which the person’s employer is—

(i)paying contributions; or

(ii)not paying contributions because the person is not receiving earnings which are pensionable earnings for the purposes of the person’s pension scheme (other than because the person is on an unauthorised absence); or

(iii)not paying contributions because the person received benefits under section 2 (Compulsory and Redundancy category (1972 Section members)) of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme or section 3 (Flexible category (1972 Section members)) of that Scheme on the basis that the person’s reckonable service within the meaning of those sections was enhanced and the period by which that service was enhanced exceeds the period beginning with the day on which the person’s retirement under those sections began and ending with the day before the person was re-employed in the scheme employment.”.

Amendment of regulation 3

5. In regulation 3 (Establishment and scope)—

(a)in paragraph (2)(e), for “existing scheme” substitute “PCSPS(NI)”;

(b)in paragraph (2)(h)(ii), for “is” substitute “was at the time the person ceased to hold that employment”;

(c)in paragraph (3) for “paragraph (2)(g) or (h)” substitute “paragraph (2)(f) to (h)”.

Amendment of regulation 4

6. In regulation 4 (Scheme manager), omit paragraph (3).

Amendment of regulation 13

7. In regulation 13 (Scheme employment)—

(a)in paragraph (1)(b), after “person” insert “(P)”;

(b)in paragraph (2), for “a scheme employment” substitute “scheme employment”.

Amendment of regulation 16

8. In regulation 16 (Fair Deal eligible persons)—

(a)in paragraph (3), for “P has had gap” substitute “P has had a gap”;

(b)in paragraph (6)—

(i)for “regulations” substitute “Regulations”;

(ii)for “3rd party” substitute “third party”.

Amendment of regulation 21

9. In regulation 21(1) (When does an option in take effect), for paragraph (a) substitute—

“(a)P becomes an active member of this scheme in relation to that service on the first day of the first pay period—

(i)after the period of two months beginning with the date on which the option is exercised; or

(ii)after any shorter period the scheme manager considers appropriate;”.

Amendment of regulation 22

10. In regulation 22 (Automatic re-enrolment), in paragraph (2) for “section 5 (automatic re-enrolement)” substitute “section 5 (automatic re-enrolment)”.

Amendment of regulation 23

11. In regulation 23 (Opting out of this scheme)—

(a)in paragraph (1)(b), for “opens” substitute “opts to join”;

(b)in paragraph (2), after “(1)(a)” insert “or (b)”.

Amendment of regulation 25

12. In regulation 25 (Opting out after one month), for paragraph (3) substitute—

“(3) If P opts to join a partnership pension account, P ceases to be in pensionable service under this scheme in relation to that employment on the last day of the first pay period—

(a)after the period of two months beginning on the date on which the option is exercised; or

(b)after any shorter period the scheme manager considers appropriate.”.

Amendment of regulation 26

13. In regulation 26 (Pensionable Earnings)—

(a)in paragraph (4), in the definition of “permanent pensionable earnings” at the end of paragraph (a) insert “(not including pay received in respect of a period of sick leave on reduced pay at a rate determined by the member’s employer to be appropriate because it is equivalent to the annual rate of an ill-health pension)”;

(b)for regulation 26(5) substitute—

“(5) In this regulation—

(a)the total fluctuating pensionable earnings in respect of any period must not exceed one third of the total permanent pensionable earnings in respect of the same period.

(b)for the purposes of this...