The Judicial Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1991

Voluntary contributions

6.—(1) The section set out in paragraph (2) shall be inserted—

(a) in the Act of 1959 as section 127A;

(b) in the Act of 1960 as section 9A; and

(c) in the Act of 1951 as section 11A.

(2) The section is as follows—

“Voluntary contributions.

. .— (1) The Lord Chancellor shall by regulations, made with the consent of the Treasury, make provision entitling any member of a judicial pension scheme constituted by this Act to make voluntary contributions towards the cost of the provision of additional benefits under the scheme.

(2) The regulations—

(a) may not prohibit the payment of voluntary contributions;

(b) may not impose any limit on the amount which any member may pay by way of voluntary contributions other than an upper limit corresponding to that for the time being fixed by or under section 594 of the [1988 c. 1] Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 (exempt statutory schemes);

(c) must secure that any voluntary contributions paid by a member of a scheme are used to provide prescribed additional benefits for or in respect of him; and

(d) must secure that the value of such additional benefits is reasonable, having regard to—

(i) the amount paid by way of voluntary contributions;

(ii) the value of the other benefits provided under the scheme; and

(iii) the general value of benefits available to a person under any contract of life insurance entered into by him with an insurance company to which Part II of the Insurance Companies Act 1982 (regulation of insurance companies carrying on insurance business within the United Kingdom) applies.

(3) The regulations may, in particular—

(a) provide that the value of additional benefits offered on payment of voluntary contributions shall be determined in accordance with prescribed rules based on tables prepared for the purposes of the regulations by the Government Actuary; and

(b) prescribe the manner in which it is to be determined in any case whether the amount of a person’s contributions exceed any limit imposed by virtue of subsection (2)(b).

(4) Nothing in subsection (2) shall be taken to prevent the regulations from limiting the overall amount which a member may pay by way of voluntary contributions by reference to the maximum entitlement of members under the scheme.

(5) Regulations made under this section may make provision for consequential and incidental matters, including, in particular, consequential provision as to any statutuory provision referring to or relating to lump sums payable under this Act.

(6) Regulations made under this section shall be subject to annulment in like manner as a statutory instrument and section 5 of the Statutory Instruments Act 1946 shall apply accordingly.”

(3) In Article 14 of the [1986 NI 18] Social Security (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (voluntary contributions) after paragraph (10A) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(10B) This Article does not apply in relation to any pension payable under—

(a) Part II of the Judicial Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 1951;

(b) Part XIII of the County Courts Act (Northern Ireland) 1959;

(c) the Resident Magistrates' Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 1960; or

(d) section 2 of the Superannuation Act (Northern Ireland) 1969.”