The Justices of the Peace Act 1949 (Compensation) Regulations 1978

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“accrued pension”, in relation to a pensionable officer who has suffered loss of office, means the pension to which he would have become entitled under the pension scheme to which he was last subject before suffering loss of office according to the method of calculation (modified where necessary for the purpose of giving effect to these Regulations) prescribed by that scheme if, at the date on which he ceased to be subject to that scheme, he had attained normal retiring age and complied with any requirement of that scheme as to a minimum of qualifying service or contribution and completed any additional contributory payments or payments in respect of added years which he was in the course of making;

“accrued retiring allowance”, in relation to a pensionable officer who has suffered loss of office, means any lump sum payment to which he would have become entitled under the pension scheme to which he was last subject before suffering loss of office according to the method of calculation (modified where necessary for the purpose of giving effect to these Regulations) prescribed by that scheme if, at the date on which he ceased to be subject to that scheme, he had attained normal retiring age and complied with any requirement of that scheme as to a minimum period of qualifying service or contribution and completed any additional contributory payments or payments in respect of added years which he was in the course of making;

“accrued incapacity pension” and “accrued incapacity retiring allowance” have the same respective meanings as “accrued pension” and “accrued retiring allowance” except that the reference to a person's attaining normal retiring age shall be construed as a reference to his becoming incapable of discharging efficiently the duties of his office by reason of permanent ill-health or infirmity of mind or body;

“the Act” means the Justices of the Peace Act 1949;

“added years”, in relation to a pensionable employee who suffers loss of office, means any additional years of service being purchased by him in his office immediately prior to the loss in question under Regulation D10 or D11 of the Local Government Superannuation Regulations 1974 and includes any additional years of service which having been granted under any provision similar to that referred to in the said Regulation D10 or D11 were being so purchased under or by virtue of interchange rules, being additional years which were being purchased partly at the expense of the paying authority and partly at the expense of the person under arrangements which were entered into-before the magistrates' courts committee either gave him notice in writing that his office was to be terminated or gave him written notice of termination of his office;

“additional contributory payments” means—

(a)

additional contributory payments of the kind referred to in Regulation D6, D7 or D8 of the Local Government Superannuation Regulations 1974; or

(b)

any similar payments made under the last relevant pension scheme as a condition of—

(i)

reckoning any period of employment as service or as a period of contribution for the purposes of the scheme, or

(ii)

reckoning non-contributing service as contributing service (which expressions have the same meaning as in the scheme) for the purposes of the scheme, or

(iii)

increasing the length at which any period of service or of contribution would be reckonable for the purpose of calculating a benefit under the scheme, or

(c)

any payments similar to any of those mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs made in pursuance of interchange rules;

“compensation question” means a question arising under these Regulations—

(a)

as to a person's entitlement to compensation for loss of office, or for loss or diminution of emoluments; or

(b)

as to the manner of a person's employment or the comparability of his duties;

“determining authority” means the magistrates' courts committee by whom the claimant was last appointed or employed or the emoluments were last paid, as the case may be, prior to the loss of office or diminution of emoluments;

“emoluments” has the meaning given by Regulation 38(1), and “annual rate of emoluments” has the meaning given by Regulation 38(3);

“enactment” means any Act or any instrument made under an Act;

“fund authority” in relation to any person, means the authority maintaining the superannuation fund or account in relation to that person;

“instrument” means an Order in Council, regulation, order, rule, scheme, direction or agreement;

“interchange rules” means rules made under section 2 of the Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948 (which provides for the pension of persons transferring to different employment) and includes any similar instrument made, or having effect as if made, under any other Act which makes similar provision;

“justices' clerk” includes a clerk to a stipendiary magistrate, a clerk to a metropolitan stipendiary court and a clerk to the justices of a liberty;

“last relevant pension scheme”, in relation to a pensionable officer, means the pension scheme to which he was subject immediately before suffering loss of office or loss or diminution of emoluments;

“local authority” means—

(a)

(i)

the council of an administrative county, county borough or county district, or the representative body of a parish (which ceased to exist after 31st March 1974),

(ii)

the council of a county or district (established by or under the Local Government Act 1972),

(iii)

in England, any parish council, common parish council or parish meeting,

(iv)

in Wales, a parish council, common parish council or parish meeting (which ceased to exist after 31st March 1974), or

(v)

in Wales, a community council (established by or under the Local Government Act 1972),

(vi)

in Scotland, the council of a county, council of city, large burgh, small burgh or district referred to in section 1(5) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 or a regional, islands or district council established under that Act;

(b)

the council of a metropolitan borough or London borough, the Common Council of the City of London, the Greater London Council and the Council of the Isles of Scilly;

(c)

any joint board or joint body constituted by or under any enactment for the purpose of exercising the functions of two or more authorities described in paragraphs (a) or (b);

(d)

any two or more authorities described in paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) above acting jointly or as a combined authority; or

(e)

a police authority (other than the Secretary of State) within the meaning of section 62 of the Police Act 1964 both as originally enacted and as subsequently amended and any previous police authority for whom Schedule 11 (Transitional Provisions) to that Act had effect or who was the police authority for an area or district which was before 1st April 1947 or after 31st March 1946 a separate police area;

“long term compensation” means compensation payable in accordance with the provisions of Part IV of these Regulations for loss of office or loss or diminution of emoluments;

“material date” means—

(a)

in relation to any person who has suffered loss of office or loss or diminution of emoluments which is attributable to the making of an order under section 18 of the Act, the date on which the order was made or such other date or dates as may be specified in the order in relation to him for all or any of the purposes of these Regulations; and

(b)

in relation to any person who has suffered such loss or diminution which is attributable to one of the events specified in paragraphs (b) or (c) of Regulation 4(1), the date on which the event occurred;

“minimum pensionable age” means, in relation to a pensionable officer, the earliest age at which, under his last relevant pension scheme, he could have become entitled to receive payment of an unreduced pension solely by virtue of his having attained a specified age and completed a specified period of service;

“national service” means service which is compulsory national service or relevant service within the meaning of the Reserve and Auxiliary Forces (Protection of Civil Interests) Act 1951, and includes service immediately following such service as aforesaid, being service in any of Her Majesty's naval, military or air forces pursuant to a voluntary engagement entered into with the consent—

(a)

in the case of a person whose last relevant employment was as a justices' clerk, of the authority by whom he was appointed, or

(b)

in the case of any other person, of the authority or person under whom he held his last relevant employment;

“normal retiring age” means, in the case of a pensionable officer to whom an age of compulsory retirement applied by virtue of any pension scheme to which he was subject in the office he has lost or the emoluments of which have been diminished or by virtue of the conditions of that office, that age, and in any other case—

(a)

in relation to a person claiming compensation in respect of the office of justices' clerk, the age of 70, and

(b)

in relation to any other person, the age of 65 if the officer is male, or 60 if the officer is female;

“paying authority” means—

(a)

where the office in respect of which the claim arises was that of clerk to the justices for a petty seasonal division—

(i)

where that division is a division of a non-metropolitan county, the council of that county; or

(ii)

where that division is a division of a metropolitan district, the council of that district; or

(iii)

where that division is a division of one of the outer London areas (which expression has the same meaning as in the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the Greater London Council; and

(b)

where the employment in respect of which a claim arises consisted of assisting the holder of such an office as aforesaid, the authority which would be the paying authority if the claim was in respect of the said office;

“pensionable employee” has the same meaning as in the Local Government Superannuation Regulations 1974;

“pensionable officer” in relation to a person who has suffered loss of office or loss or diminution of emoluments, means a person who immediately before such loss or diminution was subject to a pension scheme associated with the office he has lost, or, as the case may be, the office in which his emoluments have been diminished;

“pensionable remuneration” and “relevant period” shall have the same meanings as in Regulation E1 of the Local Government Superannuation Regulations 1974, or if those Regulations do not apply to the pension scheme concerned, shall mean the remuneration and the period which correspond in that scheme to the pensionable remuneration and the relevant period in Regulation E1;

“pension scheme”, in relation to a pensionable officer, means any form of arrangement associated with his employment for the payment of superannuation benefits, whether subsisting by virtue of any enactment, trust, contract or otherwise;

“reckonable service”, in relation to a person, means any period of whole-time or part-time employment in any relevant employment and includes any period of national service or war service undertaken on his ceasing to hold such an employment, but does not include employment in respect of which he has become entitled to receive a benefit from a pension scheme other than his last relevant pension scheme;

“relevant employment” means employment in any of the following offices or employments, that is to say—

(a)

clerk of the peace,

(b)

deputy clerk of the peace,

(c)

justices' clerk,

(d)

employment in assisting the holder of an office mentioned in any of the foregoing paragraphs of this definition in the performance of the duties of that office,

(e)

service as a collecting officer or in the employment of a collecting officer,

(f)

employment under the Crown or in the service of a local authority in Great Britain,

(g)

employment by any authority or body for the purposes of the Crown or of local government in Great Britain,

(h)

employment under any officer employed as mentioned in paragraph (f) or (g) of this definition for the purpose of the functions of the employing authority or body,

(i)

employment preceding any of the foregoing offices or employments which was reckonable for the purposes of any pension scheme associated with the office which has been lost, or

(j)

such other employment as the Secretary of State may, in the case of any named officer, approve;

but, except for national service and war service, does not include service in the armed forces of the Crown;

“resettlement compensation” means compensation payable in accordance with Part III of these Regulations for loss of office;

“retirement compensation” means compensation payable in accordance with the provisions of Regulations 18, 19 or 20;

“tribunal” means a tribunal established under section 12 of the Industrial Training Act 1964;

“war service” means war service within the meaning of the Local Government Staffs (War Service) Act 1939, the Police and Firemen (War Service) Act 1939, the Teachers' Superannuation (War Service) Act 1939, the Education (Scotland) (War Service Superannuation) Act 1939 or employment for war purposes within the meaning of the Superannuation Schemes (War Service) Act 1940, if such service or employment immediately followed a period of relevant employment and was rendered either compulsorily or with the permission of the authority or person by whom the holder of that employment was appointed or employed.

(2) The holder of any office, appointment, place, situation or employment shall, for the purposes of these Regulations, be regarded as an officer employed in that office, appointment, place, situation or employment, and “officer” and “employment” and related expressions shall be construed accordingly.

(3) In relation to a justices' clerk who before the coming into operation of section 19 of the Act was a collecting officer of any court, any emoluments in respect of his services as a collecting officer shall, for the purpose of these Regulations, be treated as emoluments in respect of the duties of the clerkship and his duties as clerk shall, for the said purposes, be treated as including his services as collecting officer.

(4) Where under any provision of these Regulations an annual value is to be assigned to a capital sum or a capital value to an annual amount—

(a) the annual or capital value shall be ascertained in accordance with the tables set out in the Schedule to these Regulations insofar as they provide for the particular case;

(b) where the said tables do not provide for a case in which an annual value is to be assigned to a capital sum or a capital value to an annual amount, the annual or capital value shall be the value as may be agreed between the determining authority and the person to whom the capital sum or annual amount is payable; and

(c) for the purpose of determining the application of the said tables, the headings and the note to each table shall be treated as part of the table.

(5) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, references to any enactment shall be construed as references thereto as amended, re-enacted, applied or modified by any subsequent enactment.

(6) References in these Regulations to a numbered Regulation shall, unless the reference is to a Regulation of specified Regulations, be construed as references to the Regulation bearing that number in these Regulations.

(7) References in any of these Regulations to a numbered paragraph shall, unless the reference is to a paragraph of a specified Regulation, be construed as references to the paragraph bearing that number in the first mentioned Regulation.

(8) The Interpretation Act 1889 shall apply for the interpretation of these Regulations as it applies for the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.