Statutory Instruments
PENSIONS
Made
21st March 1991
Laid before Parliament
22nd March 1991
Coming into force
8th April 1991
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Pensions Increase (Past Prime Ministers) Regulations 1991, and shall come into force on 8th April 1991.
2. In these Regulations—
“the 1971 Act” means the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971.
“the 1991 Act” means the Ministerial and other Pensions and salaries Act 1991(3)
3. The provisions of the 1971 Act shall apply in relation to—
(a)a pension payable under section 3 of the Ministerial Salaries Consolidation Act 1965(4)(pensions of Prime Ministers) as increased by section 1(5) of the 1991 Act, and
(b)a pension payable under section 26 or 27 of the Parliamentary and other Pensions Act 1972(5) to or in respect of a person who has held office as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, as increased by section 1(5) of the 1991 Act
subject to the modifications and exceptions specified in the following provisions of these regulations.
4. For the purposes of the 1971 Act(6)a pension paid to a person who ceased to hold office as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury before 28th February 1991 shall be deemed to have begun on that date and the “basic rate”of that pension means the pension as increased by the 1991 Act.
5. The annual rate of the pension to which these regulations apply shall be increased in respect of any period on or after 8th April 1991.
6. The Pensions Increase (Past Prime Ministers) Regulations 1972(7) and the Pensions Increase (Past Prime Ministers) (Amendment) Regulations 1979(8) are hereby revoked.
Gregory Knight
Nicholas Baker
Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury
21st March 1991
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
1. These Regulations, which revoke and replace the Prime Ministers (Past Prime Ministers) Regulations 1972 and the Prime Ministers (Past Prime Ministers)(Amendment) Regulations 1979, apply the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 to the pensions of Prime Ministers subject to certain modifications.
2. The pensions of former Prime Ministers who ceased to hold office before 28th February 1991 were from that date increased by the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 to the level of the pension which would be payable to the current Prime Minister, if he ceased to hold office on that date. That pension was itself increased by the 1991 Act to one half of the salary of the Prime Minister at the date he ceased to hold office. The pensions of Prime Ministers who ceased to hold office before 28th February 1991, are, by virtue of regulation 4, deemed to have begun on that date instead of on the dates which applied under the previous regulations, and pensions increase will be payable on the whole of the amount as increased by the 1991 Act, as if they were pensions which began on that date. The former provisions, which ensured that the pensions of former Prime Ministers together with pensions increase would at no time exceed the pension which would be payable to the current Prime Minister, if he ceased to hold office, have been removed.
3. The effect of the application of the provisions of the 1971 Act to the pensions of Prime Ministers and of the revocation of the earlier modifications is that the pensions of Prime Ministers who cease to hold office after 28th February 1991 will be deemed to begin on the day following the last day of service in respect of which the pension is payable, in accordance with section 8(2) of the 1971 Act, and that Act will apply to those pensions without any modification.
By virtue of article 2(1)(c) of the Transfer of Functions (Minister for the Civil Service and Treasury) Order 1981 (S.I. 1981/1670).
1972 c. 48 Sections 26 and 27 were amended by section 1 of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991.
Official pensions are now increased in accordance with section 59 of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975 (c. 60), which by virtue of section 59(7) has effect as if it was contained in Part I of the 1971 Act.
S.I. 1972/1654.
S.I. 1979/771.