Section 1: Consents required for civil service compensation scheme modifications.
This section removes the requirement in Article 4 of the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 to obtain the consent of civil service trade unions for reductions in benefits provided under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (Northern Ireland). The removal of this requirement does not apply to benefits provided in respect of an exit which is the consequence of a notice of dismissal given, or an agreement made, before the scheme making the reductions comes into effect. (See subsections (1) to (3)).
Subsection (4) provides that the removal of the requirement for trade union consent applies to reductions given effect by a scheme made after the coming into force of section 1.
Subsections (5) and (6) provide that where a scheme under Article 3 of the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 is made after the time when this section comes into force and consultation on the proposed scheme took place before that time, the fact that the amendments made by this section were not in force when the consultation took place does not affect whether the consultation met the requirements of Article 3(2) of that Order. In other words, that consultation is not to be regarded as ineffective just because the amendments were not yet the law when it took place.