The Civil Partnership (Judicial Pensions and Church Pensions, etc.) Order 2005

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

Parts 1 to 7 and 9 of this Order amend the Judicial Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 1951 (c. 20), the County Courts Act (Northern Ireland) 1959 (c. 25), the Resident Magistrates' Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 1960 (c. 2), the Judicial Pensions Act 1981 (c. 20) and the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993 (c. 8) (and associated primary and subordinate legislation) to make provision for the payment of pension benefits to surviving civil partners of holders of certain judicial offices and eligible children. The main changes are as follows—

• to provide that a civil partner of a judicial office holder will be entitled to the payment of a surviving civil partner’s pension should the judicial office holder die in service or in retirement;

• to provide that eligible children will be entitled to the payment of a children’s pension;

• to provide that a judicial office holder, who is a member of the scheme before 5th December 2005 and subsequently forms a civil partnership whilst in judicial office, may choose whether any period of service before the date this Order comes into force is to be considered for the purposes of calculating a civil partner’s pension;

• the Order sets out the arrangements for making payment from the office holder’s lump sum benefits (except in respect of members of a scheme constituted under the 1993 Act) or by way of making periodic contributions in respect of a surviving civil partner’s pension, and for making additional periodical payments to reflect a judicial office holder’s choice that service before 5th December 2005 is to be counted for the purposes of calculating any resultant surviving civil partner’s pension benefit;

• where a person ceased to hold judicial office before 5th December 2005 and they subsequently form a civil partnership there shall only be entitlement to a surviving civil partner’s guaranteed minimum pension calculated in accordance with the Pension Schemes Act 1993 or the Pensions Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993.

The remainder of the Order makes provision in relation to Church pensions etc.

Part 8 amends Church Measures to ensure that the pension entitlements of spouses, widows, widowers and former spouses of clergy and certain other church officials are extended to their civil partners, surviving civil partners and former civil partners. In addition, articles 81 and 83 include similar amendments to provisions which concern the provision of residences to such persons.

In Part 9, article 98 and Schedule 7 amend the Church of England Pensions Regulations 1988 (S.I. 1988/2256) and the Rules of the Church of England Funded Pensions Scheme to ensure that payments under these provisions may be made to the surviving civil partners of scheme members, and to children of the civil partners of scheme members, to the extent required by any applicable enactment or subordinate legislation in relation to such pensions, and (in relation to the Funded Scheme only) to comply with regulation 9A(1) of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/1661). The provision in the Rules for pension sharing on divorce is also extended to former civil partners.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument, as it has no impact on the costs of businesses, charities or voluntary bodies, other than certain charities and voluntary bodies within the Church of England. In relation to judicial pensions, contributions will be levied from judicial office holders who form a civil partnership. The contributions are set at an actuarially determined level which seeks to meet the average cost of providing contingent surviving dependants' pension benefits. The Order is expected to have a negligible financial impact on the public bodies responsible for the pensionable remuneration of judicial office holders.