Fire Services Act 1947

27 Firemen's Pension Scheme to supersede other statutory schemes.

(1) As respects any person retiring on or after the appointed day from employment as, or employment which for the purposes of the Scheme is to be treated as employment as, a member of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of this Act, or dying on or after the appointed day while in such employment, the Scheme shall, subject to the provisions of this section, have effect to the exclusion of any other provision for pension, allowance or gratuity in respect of such employment contained in or in force under any enactment.

(2) Where—

(a) immediately before the appointed day there are in operation by virtue of any enactment (other than an enactment contained in the Fire Brigade Pensions Act, 1925), any arrangements for the grant of pensions, allowances or gratuities in respect of members of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of the Fire Brigades Act, 1938 (in this subsection referred to as the former brigade "); and

(b) the Government Actuary certifies that the Scheme, if modified by reference to the arrangements so as to have effect subject to such modifications as are mentioned in the next following subsection, would be on the whole not less favourable than the Scheme not so modified,

then if any person—

(i) who was a member of the former brigade immediately before the eighteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-one; or

(ii) who by virtue of having been a member of the former brigade was designated under paragraph (1)(b) of regulation 3 of the National Fire Service (Preservation of Pensions) (Police Firemen) Regulations, 1941, as a person in whose case those regulations should have effect; or

(iii) who immediately before the said eighteenth day of August was engaged in service or work in such circumstances that under the Police and Firemen (War Service) Act, 1939, his service or work fell to be treated as a period of approved service in the former brigade; and

(iv) who in any case becomes on the appointed day or on the termination thereafter of such service or work as aforesaid a member of the former brigade,

gives notice in that behalf to such authority and within such period as may be specified by the Scheme, the Scheme shall have effect in his case, so long as he remains a member of the former brigade, subject to the said modifications.

(3) The modifications referred to in the last foregoing subsection are such modifications as will secure that subject to the following provisions of this section—

(a) as respects superannuation awards, the Scheme contains the like provisions in respect of the persons entitled to awards, the conditions entitling persons to awards, and the amounts of awards, as the arrangements mentioned in paragraph (a) of the last foregoing subsection;

(b) as respects injury awards, an authority making an award under the Scheme may, in any case in which it appears to them that an award under the said arrangements would have exceeded the award under the Scheme, increase the award under the Scheme by an amount not greater than the excess, as estimated by the authority;

(c) as respects the rates of contributions to be made by persons in respect of whose service awards may be made, the rates shall be the same as under the said arrangements, subject to such abatement as may be provided by the Scheme for off setting any provisions of the Scheme having effect by virtue of subsection (5) or (6) of this section in cases where those provisions apply.

In this subsection the expression " injury award " means a pension, allowance or gratuity in respect of death or incapacity of mind or body occasioned either by an injury received in the execution of duty without the default of the person injured or in such circumstances that the Scheme, apart from the foregoing modifications, applies in like manner as if it had been occasioned by an injury so received; and "superannuation .award" means a pension, allowance or gratuity other than an injury award.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (2) of this section, a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of the Fire Brigades Act, 1938, for any area and a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of this Act for that area, or an area including that area, shall be treated as one.

(5) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall affect the operation of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1946, or the National Insurance Act, 1946, but the Scheme may provide for the reduction or withholding of awards under the Scheme in cases where awards are provided for in respect of the same matters under either of the said Acts.

(6) The Secretary of State may by regulations provide, in the event of the appointed day for the purposes of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1946, falling earlier than the appointed day for the purposes of this Act, for the reduction or withholding of awards under the Fire Brigade Pensions Act, 1925, or any such arrangements as are mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of this section in cases where awards are provided for in respect of the same matters under the said Act of 1946.