The Police Service of Northern Ireland Pensions (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2007

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations amend the Royal Ulster Constabulary Pensions Regulations 1988 (“the 1988 Regulations ”).

Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of the Schedule amends regulation F9 of the 1988 Regulations to reduce from 2 years to 3 months the period of pensionable service a member of the police pension scheme must accrue before becoming eligible for a transfer of the value of his pension fund to another pension scheme. This change has effect from 1st July 2004.

Paragraphs 1, 2, 4 and 5 of Part 1 of the Schedule make a number of changes to ensure that the provisions for buying back time spent on parental leave are the same as those already in place for maternity leave. These amendments are backdated to 13th January 2006. Regulation 3 makes transitional provision relating to periods of unpaid parental leave which occurred before the commencement of these Regulations.

Part 2 of the Schedule removes references in the 1988 Regulations to the National Criminal Intelligence Service and the National Crime Squad and, in regulation K4(1), makes an exception for any pension credit under Part N. The amendments are backdated to 1st April 2002.

Part 3 of the Schedule amends regulation F1 so as to increase the period of maternity leave which counts as pensionable service that is reckonable from 14 to 18 weeks in relation to maternity leave from 15th December 1999 to 5th April 2003 and from 18 to 26 weeks in relation to maternity leave falling on or after 6th April 2003.

Part 4 of the Schedule amends regulation H5 to change the responsibility for appointing an appeal tribunal from the Northern Ireland Office to the Secretary of State.