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PART XMiscellaneous and General

136Pensions

(1)Subject to subsection (3) of this section, sections 73 and 74 of the Act of 1962 (which relate respectively to the powers of the Boards and the Holding Company as regards pensions and pension schemes and to the Minister's power to make orders about pensions) shall have effect—

(a)as if the expression " Board " in each of those sections included each of the new authorities ; and

(b)as if the reference in subsection (2)(a) of the said section 74 to a pension scheme in which employees of the Commission or a subsidiary of the Commission participated before the vesting date included a reference to a pension scheme in which employees of, or of a subsidiary of, the Railways Board or the Holding Company participated before any relevant transfer date such as is mentioned in subsection (4) of this section.

(2)If in the case of any transfer such as is mentioned in subsection (4) of this section an order under the said section 74 as applied by this section is made before the transfer date which provides for the transfer on that date from the transferor to some other person of property, rights and liabilities of the transferor relating to any pensions or pension schemes—

(a)that order may apply to the transfer under the order such of the provisions of Schedule 4 to this Act subject to such modifications as the Minister may consider appropriate; and

(b)save as may be provided by that order, the provisions of this Act with respect to the transfer mentioned in the said subsection (4) shall not apply in relation to the property, rights and liabilities to which the order relates.

(3)In relation to the Scottish Group, references to the Minister—

(a)in the said section 73 and, for the purposes of orders relating only to that Group, in the said section 74 and in subsection (2) of this section shall be construed as references to the Secretary of State;

(b)in the said section 74 and subsection (2), for the purposes of orders relating both to that Group and to other authorities, shall be construed as references to the Minister and the Secretary of State acting jointly.

(4)Any person who—

(a)on the transfer date for the purposes of a transfer under any of the following provisions of this Act, namely, sections 4(1), 4(4), 5(3) (a) or (b), 7(5) or (6), 8(4), 28(1), (2) or (5) and 29(2), ceases to be employed by one, and becomes employed by another, of the following bodies, namely, the Railways Board, the Holding Company, the new authorities and any body which is a subsidiary of that Board or Company or of any of the new authorities;

(b)on the transfer date for the purposes of any transfer under subsection (2) of section 53 of this Act ceases to be employed by the Holding Company and becomes employed by any publicly-owned body within the meaning of subsection (1)(a) of that section or under the Crown; or

(c)on any such transfer date as aforesaid is employed by a body which immediately before that date was a subsidiary of one, but on that date becomes a subsidiary of another, of the following bodies, namely, the Railways Board, the Holding Company and tile new authorities,

shall not in consequence cease to be eligible to participate in any pension scheme in which he was a participant immediately before that transfer date.

(5)In the application of subsection (4) of this section to a pension scheme the benefits under which are or will be receivable as of right, persons who have obtained pension rights under the scheme without having contributed under the scheme shall be regarded as participants in the scheme ; and the reference in that subsection to being eligible to participate in a pension scheme shall be construed accordingly.

(6)Subsections (4) and (5) of this section shall have effect subject to any order under section 74 of the Act of 1962 made by virtue of subsection (1) of this section, being an order taking effect on or at any time after the relevant transfer date referred to in the said subsection (4).