Courts Act 1971

19 Pensions of Circuit judges

(1) Subject to Part II of Schedule 2 to this Act, the Lord Chancellor may from time to time recommend to the Minister for the Civil Service that there shall be paid to any Circuit judge an annual sum by way of pension calculated in accordance with subsection (2) below—

(a) if he vacates his office in accordance with section 17 above; or

(b) if the Lord Chancellor is satisfied by means of a medical certificate that, by reason of infirmity of mind or body, he is incapable of discharging the duties of his office, and that the incapacity is likely to be permanent; or

(c) if he retires after fifteen years' service and at the time of his retirement he has attained the age of sixty-five.

(2) The annual pension payable to a Circuit judge in accordance with this section shall be that fraction of his last annual salary specified in the entry in the second column of the following table which corresponds to the entry in the first column of that table specifying the number of completed years he has served as a Circuit judge:—

TABLE

Completed years of service	Fraction of last annual salary
Less than 5	Six-fortieths
5	Ten-fortieths
6	Eleven-fortieths
7	Twelve-fortieths
8	Thirteen-fortieths
9	Fourteen-fortieths
10	Fifteen-fortieths
11	Sixteen-fortieths
12	Seventeen-fortieths
13	Eighteen-fortieths
14	Nineteen-fortieths
15 or more	Twenty-fortieths.

(3) If a person to whom a pension has been granted under this section before he has attained the age of seventy-two in consequence of any such incapacity as is referred to in subsection (1)(b) above resumes the duties of a Circuit judge, the payment of the pension granted to him shall be suspended during the period of his resumed service, but at the end of that period the pension shall again be payable and be recalculated in accordance with subsection (2) above, and for that purpose the period of his resumed service shall be added to the period of his former service.

(4) Sections 2 to 9 and 15 to 17 of the [1950 c. 11 (14 & 15 Geo. 6).] Administration of Justice (Pensions) Act 1950 (lump sums and widows' and dependants' pensions) shall apply in relation to a circuit judge and service as such a judge as they apply in relation to the persons specified in Schedule 1 to that Act and the service specified in that Schedule as their relevant service.

(5) Notwithstanding that the annual salary of a Circuit judge is abated under section 18(3) above, for the purpose of computing any pension payable to him in respect of his office and any derivative benefits, within the meaning of the Administration of Justice (Pensions) Act 1950, which depend upon eligibility for such a pension, the amount of his annual salary shall be treated as the amount determined under section 18(1) above in his case and not the amount as so abated.

(6) Any pension granted under this section shall be charged on and paid out of the Consolidated Fund and shall be payable at such intervals, not exceeding three months, as the Treasury may determine.

(7) The decision of the Minister for the Civil Service shall be final on any question arising with regard to—

(a) the application of any of the provisions of this section to any person, or

(b) the amount of any pension under this section, or

(c) the reckoning of any service for the purpose of calculating such a pension.