The Parliamentary Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2004

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

1.  These Regulations make various amendments to the Parliamentary Pensions (Consolidation and Amendment) Regulations 1993 (the “Principal Regulations”).

2.  Regulations 3 to 5 and 8 to 11 amend the Principal Regulations to make pensionable under the Parliamentary Pension Scheme that part of the salary of a Member of the House of Commons, if any, which is attributable to his service as Chairman of one of the qualifying select committees. The qualifying select committees are select committees appointed under Standing Order no. 152 (select committees related to government departments), the Environmental Audit Committee, the European Scrutiny Committee, the Committee of Public Accounts, the Select Committee on Public Administration, the Regulatory Reform Committee, the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.

3.  Regulation 6 amends regulation F7 in the Principal Regulations to clarify the position on entitlement to a guaranteed minimum pension.

4.  Regulation 7 amends regulation H1 in the Principal Regulations to clarify that service in the European Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales or the Northern Ireland Assembly also counts towards the qualifying period for an early retirement pension, except that any concurrent service can count only once.

5.  Regulation 12 amends paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 to the Principal Regulations to clarify the scope of the indemnity in respect of the Trustees of the Parliamentary Pension Scheme.

6.  Regulation 2 amends the definitions in the Principal Regulations to take account of the above changes.

7.  Section 2(4) of the Parliamentary and other Pensions Act 1987 confers express power to make regulations retrospective in effect. Regulations 2(b) and (g) to (i), 3 to 5 and 8 to 11 take effect from 26th November 2003.