The Armed Forces and Reserve Forces (Compensation Scheme) (Amendment) Order 2006

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces Compensation Scheme 2005 (“the Scheme”) which provides for benefits to be payable to or in respect of a person by reason of his illness or injury (whether physical or mental), or his death, which is caused (wholly or partly) by his service in the armed forces or the reserve forces.

This Order amends the Scheme in the manner described below.

Article 3 amends article 8 of the Scheme to add the condition that for benefit to be payable for injuries made worse by service, service must be the predominant cause of the worsening of the injury.

Article 4 amends article 10 of the Scheme with the effect that the included activities for which benefit may be payable where injury or death occurs apply also where an injury is worsened. The types of travel during which if injury is sustained, worsened or death occurs benefit may be payable are amended.

Article 5(1) amends article 11 of the Scheme with the effect that no benefit will be payable by reason of the associated conditions of excluded illnesses. Article 5(2) amends article 11 to provide that an exogenous infection will not be an excluded illness where it results from a zoonosis.

Articles 6 and 7 amend articles 13 and 14 of the Scheme with the effect that where more than one injury is sustained in one incident and one or more of those injuries is an injury to a like part of the body (article 18 of the Scheme) or the same part of the body (article 19 of the Scheme) as that injured in a previous incident, the article 18 or article 19 calculation will take place prior to the multiple injury calculation contained in article 15(2) of the Scheme.

Article 8 amends article 20 of the Scheme with the effect that the recipient of a temporary award will have no right to seek a reconsideration or review of that award. Within a year of a temporary award being made, the Secretary of State will issue a decision either making, or refusing to make, a permanent award.

Article 9 amends article 27 of the Scheme with the effect that where a member of the forces, who is a member of the Scheme established under Armed Forces Pension Scheme Order 2005, dies leaving more than one surviving spouse entitled to the bereavement grant, the amount to which each surviving spouse is entitled will be the difference between the salary of the member of the forces on the day on which he dies and the bereavement grant divided by the number of surviving spouses.

Article 10 amends article 28 of the Scheme with the effect that on the death of a member or a former member of the forces' sole surviving spouse, civil partner or surviving adult dependant, who had been in receipt of a survivor’s guaranteed income payment, any child’s payments will be recalculated as if the member or former member of the forces had died without leaving a spouse, civil partner or surviving adult dependant.

Article 11 inserts article 34A to the Scheme with the effect that any guaranteed income payment and survivor’s guaranteed income payment will cease to be paid to a former member of the forces on his admission to the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Article 12 amends article 41 of the Scheme. Article 41 of the Scheme provides the Secretary of State with discretion to extend, by one year, the time limits for making a claim, which time limits are set out in articles 39 and 40. The amendment provides that the Secretary of State’s discretion arises where a claimant, previously incapable of making a claim, subsequently becomes capable of doing so but in fact has insufficient time to make the claim within the time limits set out in articles 39 and 40.

Article 13 amends article 43 of the Scheme with the effect that the Secretary of State’s obligation, when writing to inform a claimant of the decision on any claim, is to inform him of any right to reconsideration or any right to appeal that the claimant may have.

Article 14 amends article 45 of the Scheme to provide that there is no right to seek reconsideration of a decision to make either an interim award (under article 44(1) of the Scheme) or a temporary award (under article 20(1) of the Scheme).

Article 15 amends article 48 of the Scheme with the effect that the requirement that an application for a review be on a form approved by the Secretary of State is removed.

Article 16 amends article 53 of the Scheme. Article 53 provides that, where an individual fails to comply with a request to provide information or to attend a medical examination, his claim will be treated as never having been made. Article 15 amends article 53 of the Scheme with the effect that a claim for these purposes includes an application for reconsideration under (article 45(1) of the Scheme) or an application for review (under articles 47 to 49 of the Scheme).

Article 17 amends Schedule 2 to the Scheme with the effect that article 27(2)(b) shall apply to members of the Reserve Forces Pension Scheme.

Article 18 substitutes a revised Schedule 4 to the Scheme. Schedule 4 to the Scheme contains tariff tables which: list the various forms of injury or disease for which compensation is available under the Scheme; specify a numerical level referable to each type of injury or disease and specify for each numerical level the amount of compensation payable. The revised Schedule 4 incorporates some additional table entries and amends the contents of certain pre-existing table entries.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no significant impact on the costs of business, charities or voluntary bodies.