2.—(1) In this Scheme—
“the 2007 Scheme” means the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme 2007(1);
“the 1993 Act” means the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993(2);
“the 1999 Act” means the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999(3);
“the 1999 Order” means the Welfare Reform and Pensions Order (Northern Ireland) 1999(4);
“adoption leave” means leave under Article 107A of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(5); and “ordinary adoption leave” and “additional adoption leave” shall be construed accordingly;
“amount”, in relation to a pension, means the annual amount of the pension;
“award” means a pension or lump sum under this Scheme, or the refund of pension contributions;
“Board-initiated early retirement” means retirement before normal retirement age under article 16;
“cash equivalent” and “part-cash equivalent” have the respective meanings given by sections 90 and 94(1) of the 1993 Act;
“child”, in relation to a scheme member, means—
a child who is financially dependent on him, and is—
a natural child, step-child or adopted child of his; or
otherwise related to him; or
the child of his spouse, civil partner or nominated partner; and
any child of his—
who is born after his death; and
with whom the child’s mother was pregnant at the date of the member’s death;
“Compensation Scheme” means the Firefighters’ Compensation Scheme (Northern Ireland) out in Schedule 1 to the Firefighters’ Compensation Order (Northern Ireland)(6)
“contracted–out”, in relation to an employment or scheme, has the same meaning as in section 8 of Chapter 1 of Part III of the 1993 Act;
“contributions equivalent premium” has the meaning given by section 51(2) of the 1993 Act and any reference to a case in which a contributions equivalent premium has been paid includes a reference to a case in which such a premium is payable;
“contributions election” means an election under article 8(1) not to make pension contributions;
“deferred member” has the meaning given by article 4(3);
“disabled” and “disablement” have the meanings given by article 3;
“eligibility condition” means any of the conditions set out in article 5(1);
“final pensionable pay” shall be construed in accordance with article 62;
“firefighter member” has the meaning given by article 4(1);
“guaranteed minimum” is the amount determined for the purposes of sections 9 to 13 of the 1993 Act, and “guaranteed minimum pension” has the same meaning as in that Act; any reference to the guaranteed minimum in relation to a pension under a pension scheme at a particular time is a reference to the amount certified as that minimum at that time;
“higher tier ill–health pension” has the meaning given by article 12(3);
“ill-health retirement” means retirement under article 12;
“independent qualified medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner holding a diploma in occupational medicine or an equivalent or higher qualification issued by a competent authority in an EEA State, or being an Associate, a Member or a Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine(7) or an equivalent institution of an EEA State; and for the purposes of this definition “a competent authority” has the meaning given by the General and Specialist Medical Practice (Education, Training and Qualifications) Order 2003(8);
“injury” means any injury or disease, whether of body or mind;
“lower tier ill-health pension” has the meaning given by article 12(2);
“maternity leave” means leave under Article 103 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996; and “ordinary maternity leave” and “additional maternity leave” shall be construed accordingly;
“member-initiated early retirement” means retirement before normal retirement age under article 15;
“nominated partner” has the meaning given by article 4(6);
“normal benefit age” is 60;
“normal retirement age” is 65;
“paternity leave” means leave under regulation 4 or 8 of the Paternity and Adoption Leave (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2002(9);
“pension”, unless a contrary intention appears, means a pension under this Scheme;
“pensionable pay” shall be construed in accordance with article 61;
“pensionable retained or volunteer service”, in relation to a retained or volunteer firefighter and any period, means the same proportion of whole-time service as that which has actual pensionable pay for that period bears to his reference pay for that period;
“pensionable service” shall be construed in accordance with articles 56 to 59;
“pension credit” means a credit under Article 26(1)(b) of the 1999 Order or section 29(1)(b) of the 1999 Act;
“pension credit benefit” has the meaning given by section 97B of the 1993 Act(10);
“pension credit member” has the meaning given by Article 121(1) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995(11);
“pension credit rights” has the meaning given by section 97B of the 1999 Act;
“pension debit” means a debit under Article 26(1)(a) of the 1999 Order or section 29(1)(a) of the 1999 Act;
“pension debit member” means a person whose benefits or future benefits under this Scheme have been reduced under Article 28 of the 1999 Order or section 31 of the 1999 Act;
“pensioner”, except in the definition of “pensioner member”, means a person who is in receipt of a pension;
“pensioner member” has the meaning given by article 4(4);
“pension sharing order” means an order or provision mentioned in Article 25(1) of the 1999 Order or section 28(1) of the 1999 Act;
“personal pension scheme” has the meaning given by section 1 of the 1993 Act;
“qualifying service” has the meaning given by article 55;
“reference pay”, in relation to the pay of a retained or volunteer firefighter over any period or 12 consecutive months, means the whole-time equivalent pensionable pay over that period of a regular firefighter employed in a similar role and with equivalent qualifying service;
“regular employment” means employment for at least 30 hours a week on average over a period of not less than 12 consecutive months beginning with the date on which the issue of the person’s capacity for employment arises;
“regular firefighter” means a person employed (whether whole-time or part-time) by the Board—
as a firefighter, but not as a retained or volunteer firefighter,
on terms under which he is, or may be, required to engage in fire-fighting or, without a break in continuity of such employment, may be required to perform other duties appropriate to his role as a firefighter (whether instead of, or in addition to, engaging in fire-fighting); and
otherwise than in a temporary capacity;
“retained firefighter” and “volunteer firefighter” mean a person employed by the Board—
as a firefighter, but not as a regular firefighter;
on terms under which he is, or may be, required to engage in fire-fighting or, without a break in continuity of such employment, may be required to perform other duties appropriate to his role as a firefighter (whether instead of, or in addition to, engaging in fire-fighting);
otherwise than in a temporary capacity; and
who is obliged to attend at such times as the officer in charge considers necessary, and in accordance with the orders that he receives;
and “retained or volunteer firefighter” shall be construed accordingly;
“role”, in relation to a firefighter, except in article 4(1), means the role in which he is for the time being employed, being a role set out in “Fire and Rescue Services Rolemaps” issued by the National Joint Council for Local Authority Fire and Rescue Services in August 2005(12);
“state pensionable age” means pensionable age as determined in accordance with the articles in paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995(13)
“survivor’s pension” means a pension under article 23; and
“transfer value payment” means a payment to another pension scheme or arrangement in respect of rights to benefits that have accrued to, or in respect of, a member under this Scheme.
(2) Where this Scheme requires anything to be done within a specified period after or from a specified day or event, the period begins immediately after the specified day or, as the case may be, the day on which the specified event occurs.
.S.I. 1996/1919 (N.I. 16) Article 107A was inserted by Article 3 of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 (S.I. 2002/2836 (N.I.2))
The Faculty of Occupational Medicine is a registered charity no. 1035415
Section 97B was inserted by Article 34 of 1999/3147 (N.I. 11).
S.I. 1995/3213 (N.I. 22) as amended by S.I. 1993/3147 (N.I. 11) Schedule 1 paragraph 50(3).
The document is accessible at http://www/lge.gov.uk/conditions/firefighters/content/documents/fire service rolemaps.pdf.