Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Full-time) Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 1997

Made: 2nd June 1997

To be laid before Parliament

Coming into operation: 1st July 1997

The Secretary of State, in pursuance of section 26 of the Police Act (Northern Ireland) 1970[^f00001], read with Articles 14 and 15 of the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972[^f00002], and after consulting, in accordance with section 34(2) of the said Act of 1970, the Police Authority and the Police Association, hereby with the concurrence of the Treasury makes the following regulations:—

Citation, commencement and effect

1

These regulations may be cited as the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Full-time) Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 1997 and shall come into operation on 1st July 1997, but shall have effect for the purposes of regulation 5 as from 30th March 1996.

Interpretation

2

In these regulations any reference to the principal regulations is a reference to the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Full-time) Pensions Regulations 1994[^f00003].

Revocation, saving and amendment

3

There shall be inserted after regulation 1 of the principal regulations the following regulations—

(1A) (1) Subject to paragraph (2), the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Pensions) Regulations 1973[^f00004] (the 1973 regulations) shall cease to have effect in so far as they apply to reserve members except in the case of an award or payment to or in respect of a person who retired or otherwise ceased to be a reserve member before 1st July 1997, including an award on the death of such a person on or after the said date. (2) In the case of a person who became a reserve member before 1st July 1997 to whom any award becomes payable under these regulations and to whom, if these regulations had not been made, an award would have been payable under the 1973 regulations, the award so payable shall be of the amount calculated in accordance with the 1973 regulations or of the amount calculated in accordance with the corresponding provisions of these regulations, whichever amount is the greater. (1B) Regulation 3 of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Injury Benefit) Regulations 1988[^f00005] shall have effect in so far as it applies to reserve members as if— (a) in paragraph (1) there were substituted for the words “Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Pensions) Regulations 1973” the words “Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Full-time) Pensions Regulations 1994”; (b) in paragraph (2) there were substituted for the words “regulation 3(3)” the words “regulation A11(3) of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Pensions Regulations 1988 as applied to members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve appointed on a full-time basis by regulation 3”; and (c) in paragraph (3) there were substituted for the words “by regulation 3(2)” the words “to members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve appointed on a full-time basis by regulation 3”.

Application of the Pensions Regulations to reserve members

4

In regulation 3 of the principal regulations there shall be substituted for the words “regulations F4 and F7” the words “regulation F4”.

Modification of provisions applied to reserve members

5

• (1) There shall be substituted for regulation 4 of the principal regulations the following regulation—

(4) In their application by virtue of regulation 3, the provisions specified in that regulation shall have effect subject to the modifications specified in the Schedule.

• (2) There shall be substituted for the Schedule to the principal regulations the Schedule contained in the Schedule to these regulations.

Service before 1st July 1994

6

There shall be substituted for regulation 5 of the principal regulations the following regulation—

(5) (1) Subject to paragraph (2), nothing in these regulations shall operate so as to confer on any person any entitlement to an award or payment under the Pensions Regulations as applied to reserve members by these regulations in respect of or relating to a reserve member’s service as such at any time before 1st July 1994. (2) For the purpose of calculating an award to a reserve member under regulation B4 of the Pensions Regulations as applied to reserve members by these regulations his pensionable service shall be deemed to be his period, or the aggregate of his periods, of service as a reserve member: Provided that if a reserve member is entitled to a pension under the Pensions Regulations, the 1973 Regulations, the Royal Ulster Constabulary Pensions Order 1949[^f00006] or the Ulster Special Constabulary Pensions Regulations 1950[^f00007] or becomes entitled to claim long-term or retirement compensation under the said Regulations of 1950— (a) his pensionable service shall be deemed to be the sum of his pensionable service in the Royal Ulster Constabulary or the Ulster Special Constabulary or in both those constabularies, as the case may be, and his period, or the aggregate of his periods, of service as a reserve member; (b) his pension under the said Order of 1949 or the 1973 Regulations or his pension or any periodic compensation payable to him under the said Regulations of 1950 shall be deemed to be such a pension as is mentioned in paragraph 3 of Part V of Schedule B to the Pensions Regulations; and (c) any lump sum retirement compensation payable to him under the said Regulations of 1950 shall be treated as if it were such a gratuity as is mentioned in paragraph 4(4) of the said Part V.

SCHEDULE — Schedule to be substituted for the Schedule to the Principal Regulations

Signed

Marjorie Mowlam — One of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State — 19th May 1997

We concur

Graham Allen — John McFall — Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury — 2nd June 1997

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These regulations further amend the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Full-time) Pensions Regulations 1994 (the principal regulations) and the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Injury Benefit) Regulations 1988 (the 1988 Regulations), and revoke the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Pensions) Regulations 1973 (the 1973 Regulations) in so far, as regards the 1973 and the 1988 Regulations, as they apply to the RUC (Full-time) Reserve.

Regulation 3 revokes the 1973 Regulations and makes a consequential amendment of the 1988 Regulations.

Regulation 4 corrects an error in the principal regulations.

Regulation 5 incorporates the modifications of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Pensions Regulations 1988 (the Pensions Regulations) made by regulation 4 of the principal regulations (together with the additional modifications referred to below) in a new Schedule to the principal regulations (set out in the Schedule to these regulations).

Regulation 6 substitutes for regulation 5 of the principal regulations a new regulation which ensures that, in the event of a reserve member being entitled to an injury award, all his service as a reserve member and any previous service as a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary or the Ulster Special Constabulary will be reckoned in the calculation of that award.

The new Schedule referred to above contains two additional modifications of the Pensions Regulations in their application to the Full-time Reserve. Part A of the Pensions Regulations is modified by substituting for regulation A14 (concerning transfers between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and police forces in Great Britain) a new regulation which provides that references to a reserve member transferring to and having transferred from a police force in Great Britain are to be construed respectively as a reference to his ceasing to be a reserve member and being recruited as a regular policeman in a police force in Great Britain and vice versa; and Part F of the Pensions Regulations is modified by inserting a new regulation F7A the effect of which is to abolish the requirement on the Police Authority to pay a transfer value when a reserve member leaves the force and joins a police force in Great Britain and instead to require the Police Authority to furnish to the police authority responsible for the maintenance of the police force which the reserve member joins a certificate of the pension entitlements of that reserve member. As as result of these changes minor consequential modifications are made to regulations A8, B6 and F8 of the Pensions Regulations.

These regulations come into operation on 1st July 1997 but have effect for the purposes of regulation 5 on and after 31st March 1996. Retrospective effect is authorised by Articles 14 and 15 of the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1970 c. 9 (N.I.) as amended by 1994 c. 29 and modified by S.I. 1973/2163

[^f00002]: S.I. 1972/1073 (N.I. 10)

[^f00003]: S.R. 1994 No. 197 as amended by S.R. 1996 No. 5

[^f00004]: S.R. & O. (N.I.) 1973 No. 314

[^f00005]: S.R. 1988 No. 377 as amended by S.R. 1988 No. 441

[^f00006]: S.R. & O. (N.I.) 1949 No. 211 (p. 379)

[^f00007]: S.R. & O. (N.I.) 1950 No. 97 (p. 617)

[^f00008]: S.I. 1975/1503 (N.I. 15)

[^f00009]: S.R. 1996 No. 564