38Employment in more than one public office.
(1)The Treasury may make rules with respect to the superannuation benefits payable to or in respect of persons who have been employed in more than one public office.
(2)Rules under this section may in particular in relation to such persons—
(a)modify this Act and any other enactments forming part of the law of the United Kingdom or any part thereof or of the Isle of Man which are for the time being in force and under which pensions are payable in respect of employment in a public office,
(b)apply the provisions of this Act, with or without modifications, in substitution for any other enactments forming part of the law of the United Kingdom or any part thereof or of the Isle of Man, notwithstanding that this Act is not otherwise applicable in relation to any of those public offices,
(c)make provisions as to the manner in which any pensions are to be defrayed, and in particular make provision for the payment of a transfer value by one pension authority to another, including the payment of a transfer value out of the Exchequer,
(d)define the kinds of public offices which are to be treated for the purposes of the rules as different public offices,
and rules under this section may include such supplemental and incidental provisions as appear to the Treasury to be expedient.
(3)Rules under this section may provide either for separate pensions under the respective enactments relating to the different employments or for a single pension under the enactments relating to the later or latest employment (or by virtue of subsection (2)(b) of this section under this Act) or employ partly the one method and partly the other:
Provided that if the rules provide for separate pensions in relation to different public offices the rules shall not modify this Act or any other enactments so as to include as reckonable service in computing one of the separate pensions service in a public office in respect of which another of those separate pensions is payable.
(4)Rules under this section may be so framed as to apply to persons ceasing to be employed in one public office and becoming employed in another notwithstanding that the cessation of the first employment or the commencement of the second employment was before the date of the making of the rules:
Provided that no rules shall be framed so as to apply when the cessation of the first employment took place before the making of the rules unless the rules are only to apply with the consent of the person ceasing to be employed, or that person is by the rules given an opportunity to elect that they shall not apply to him.
(5)If the application of the rules in force under this section would put a particular individual in a position less advantageous than that in which he would have been if the rules did not apply in relation to him, they shall not be so applied.
(6)In this section " pension ", in relation to any person, means a pension of any kind whatsoever payable to or in respect of him, and includes a lump sum or gratuity so payable.