Amendments to the firefighters’ pension schemes in England 2022
Applies to England
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
In November 2021, the Home Office published a consultation on Public Service Pensions: Firefighters’ Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2022, to enact the first phase of the McCloud remedy (prospective).
The Home Office has published a summary of responses to the consultation on proposed amendments to the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (England) regulations 2014 as part of the first phase, which will move all members (including those formerly protected) to the 2015 scheme (‘the reformed scheme’) on 1 April 2022 and close the legacy schemes to future accrual from 31 March 2022. This will mean that all members are treated equally in respect of any pensionable service accrued after 31 March 2022.
Having considered the responses, the Home Office will proceed with amending the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (England) regulations 2014.This is necessary to comply with the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices (PSPJO) Bill and the Court of Appeal’s ruling in 2018 in the McCloud/Sargeant litigation.
The consultation response included on this page also provides the updated equality impact assessment of any potential impacts on those with protected characteristics as a result of the proposed amendments.
Subject to the necessary parliamentary approval, the changes will come into effect from 1 April 2022.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The first phase of the remedy is to make changes to the scheme regulations, in line with the Public Service Pensions & Judicial Offices Bill, which will close the legacy pension schemes to future accrual from 31 March 2022 and ensure all members who remain in service from 1 April 2022 do so as members of the reformed scheme (“the 2015 Scheme”). This will ensure future equal treatment going forwards.
These changes are part of the package of measures the government is undertaking to remove the discrimination identified by the courts in the way that the 2015 reforms were introduced for some members.
Further information can be found in the government’s response to the public consultation.
This consultation on the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme seeks responses from interested parties on the amendments to the regulations needed to enact the first phase of the remedy, as set out in the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill. The intention is that these come into force on 1 April 2022.
A further consultation on amendments to the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme to implement the second phase of the remedy will follow in 2022. This will focus on implementing members having a choice of benefits for the period which the remedy for age discrimination applies: 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022.
Documents
Updates to this page
Last updated 21 June 2022 + show all updates
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Added accessible HTML version of consultation response.
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Added consultation response.
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First published.