Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Official Report 541KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/357)

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Firefighters’ Pension Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Order 2019 (SSI 2019/358)

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Police Pensions Amendment (Increased Pension Entitlement) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/380)

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Firefighters’ Pension Scheme Amendment (Increased Pension Entitlement) (Scotland) Order 2019 (SSI 2019/381)

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Firefighters’ Pension and Compensation Schemes (Amendment) (Scotland) Order 2019 (SSI 2019/382)

Agenda item 5 is consideration of five instruments that are subject to the negative procedure. I refer members to paper 6, which is a note by the clerk. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has considered and reported on the instruments and has made a number of comments, which are set out in the paper by the clerk. Do members have any comments?

I have some comments, although they do not relate specifically to the instruments that are in front of us. I have been dealing with a constituency case involving firefighter pensions. It is about pre-1992 pensions which, unlike later pensions, are not given to partners who are not surviving spouses or surviving civil partners, even if, as in this case, there was a relationship for several decades.

I know that the matter is mainly reserved to the UK Government, and that the Scottish Public Pensions Agency does not plan to make any changes because its view is that there is a principle that changes to public service pensions should not be made retrospectively because improvements to schemes should generally be met by members and not by the taxpayer. However, my constituent feels that there is discrimination against them in this case.

Will the committee agree to write to the Minister for Community Safety to bring the anomaly to her attention and ask her how many surviving partners are affected, what it would cost to make such a change to pre-1992 pensions and whether she is minded to do that at any point?

Do you have a suggestion?

My suggestion is that we write to the minister.

Yes. Is the committee content with that? Do members have any other comments?

If we write to the minister, there will be a delay before we receive a response. As I said, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has considered the instruments and made some comments—not least about the drafting, which appears to be defective. Does the committee agree to write to the minister as Fulton MacGregor suggests, and allow her an opportunity to address the comments on the defective drafting? I believe that we have time to delay.

There is time for the Firefighters’ Pension and Compensation Schemes (Amendment) (Scotland) Order 2019.

Do members agree to delay a decision on that order until our meeting on 7 January, and to do the same for the regulation that Fulton MacGregor talked about?

Members indicated agreement.

If I understand correctly, we will write to the minister about the broader point that Mr MacGregor raised and in relation to SSI 2019/382, and we will hold that off until 7 January, pending further correspondence with the minister on the suggestion that there is defective drafting. We will combine the two issues in the same letter to the Minister for Community Safety.

And the other instruments can proceed.

Yes.

With that in mind, we will delay a decision on SSI 2019/382 until 7 January. Does the committee agree that it does not want to make any recommendation in relation to the other instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you. That concludes the public part of today’s meeting. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 17 December, when we will continue to take evidence on the Children (Scotland) Bill.

11:14 Meeting continued in private until 12:07.