Post Office Act 1969

47 Making, by the Minister, in consideration of the Exchequer’s being relieved of certain liabilities with respect to pensions, of payments to trustees appointed by the Post Office. U.K.

(1) In consideration of the fact that, after the beginning of the appointed day, the Exchequer will, by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act, be relieved of liabilities in respect of the provision of pensions, gratuities and other like benefits to, and in respect of, certain persons, the following provisions of this section shall have effect.

(2) It shall be assumed that, on the appointed day, the Minister is the holder of an amount of 2½% Consolidated Stock equal in nominal value to such sum (not being less than £1,000 million nor more than £1,500 million) as he may determine for the purposes of this section (which amount is hereafter in this section referred to as the “assumed amount of stock”); and trustees appointed by the Post Office for the purposes of this section (hereafter in this section referred to as “the trustees”)—

(a) shall, subject to the following provisions of this section, be entitled to receive from him, in accordance with those provisions, quarterly payments (hereafter in this section referred to as “capital payments”) which shall severally be taken to represent the proceeds of assumed sales of portions of the assumed amount of stock and shall continue to be made until, by the operation of this section, the assumed amount of stock has been exhausted, and

(b) shall also, subject as aforesaid, be entitled to receive from him, in accordance with the said provisions, quarterly payments (hereafter in this section referred to as “interest payments”) of which the first shall be taken to represent interest on the assumed amount of stock and each subsequent one shall be taken to represent interest on the residue of the assumed amount of stock remaining on the immediately preceding day on which an interest payment was payable.

(3) Capital and interest payments shall be payable on the same days as those on which dividends are payable in respect of 2½% Consolidated Stock, that is to say, 5th January, 5th April, 5th July and 5th October (which days are hereafter in this section referred to as “pay-days”), the first of those payments being payable on the first pay-day following the appointed day.

(4) Subject to the next following subsection, the aggregate of the sums that the trustees are, by virtue of this section, entitled to receive on a pay-day shall be £11,250,000.

(5) Capital payments may be reduced or withheld by the Minister in not more than five financial years (but so that none be reduced or withheld unless, beforehand, the Post Office has been notified by him of the intended reduction or withholding and the reduction or withholding has been approved by resolution of the Commons House of Parliament), subject however, to this qualification, that if the Minister avails himself of the benefit of this subsection in two successive financial years it shall not be open to him to avail himself of it in the financial year next following.

(6) For the purpose of computing the amount of the first interest payment, it shall be assumed that interest on the assumed amount of stock begins to accrue on the appointed day and accrues from day to day.

(7) Each interest payment subsequent to the first shall be equal to that which would be payable by way of dividend on an actual holding of 2½% Consolidated Stock equal to so much of the assumed amount of stock as was outstanding on the day on which the immediately preceding interest payment was payable.

(8) If, in the case of a pay-day on which a capital payment is payable, the residue of the assumed amount of stock that remained on the immediately preceding pay-day is of an amount such that the proceeds of an assumed sale thereof for the purpose of computing the amount of that payment amount to a sum less than that which, apart from this subsection, the trustees are entitled to receive by way thereof, the requirements of this section shall be deemed to be complied with by the payment by the Minister to the trustees of an amount equal to those proceeds and of the interest payment payable on the first-mentioned pay-day.

(9) For the purposes of this section, an assumed sale of a portion of the assumed amount of stock shall be assumed to take place on the last day before the payment representing the proceeds of the sale is due on which bargains in 2½% Consolidated Stock, other than bargains at special prices, were recorded on the London Stock Exchange, and at a price half way between the highest and lowest prices at which bargains in that stock, other than bargains at special prices, were recorded on that Exchange on that day.

(10) Trustees appointed by the Post Office for the purposes of this section shall hold moneys received by them thereunder, and any sums accruing by reason of the investment by them of any moneys so received, upon such trusts as may be declared by the Post Office for the purposes of this section, being trusts the objects of which consist in the payment, or the making of provision for the payment, of pensions, allowances and gratuities to, and in respect of, persons with respect to whom determinations made under section 43 of this Act are in force and in the reimbursement of the Post Office sums paid under section 44 or 46 of this Act.

(11) Section 6(1) of this Act shall not operate so as to preclude the appointment of trustees or the declaration of trusts by the Post Office for the purposes of this section before the appointed day.

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 47(10) amended by S.I. 1983/326, art. 3(3)