Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Full-time) Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These regulations further amend the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Full-time) Pensions Regulations 1994 (the principal regulations) and the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Injury Benefit) Regulations 1988 (the 1988 Regulations), and revoke the Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve (Pensions) Regulations 1973 (the 1973 Regulations) in so far, as regards the 1973 and the 1988 Regulations, as they apply to the RUC (Full-time) Reserve.

Regulation 3 revokes the 1973 Regulations and makes a consequential amendment of the 1988 Regulations.

Regulation 4 corrects an error in the principal regulations.

Regulation 5 incorporates the modifications of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Pensions Regulations 1988 (the Pensions Regulations) made by regulation 4 of the principal regulations (together with the additional modifications referred to below) in a new Schedule to the principal regulations (set out in the Schedule to these regulations).

Regulation 6 substitutes for regulation 5 of the principal regulations a new regulation which ensures that, in the event of a reserve member being entitled to an injury award, all his service as a reserve member and any previous service as a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary or the Ulster Special Constabulary will be reckoned in the calculation of that award.

The new Schedule referred to above contains two additional modifications of the Pensions Regulations in their application to the Full-time Reserve. Part A of the Pensions Regulations is modified by substituting for regulation A14 (concerning transfers between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and police forces in Great Britain) a new regulation which provides that references to a reserve member transferring to and having transferred from a police force in Great Britain are to be construed respectively as a reference to his ceasing to be a reserve member and being recruited as a regular policeman in a police force in Great Britain and vice versa; and Part F of the Pensions Regulations is modified by inserting a new regulation F7A the effect of which is to abolish the requirement on the Police Authority to pay a transfer value when a reserve member leaves the force and joins a police force in Great Britain and instead to require the Police Authority to furnish to the police authority responsible for the maintenance of the police force which the reserve member joins a certificate of the pension entitlements of that reserve member. As as result of these changes minor consequential modifications are made to regulations A8, B6 and F8 of the Pensions Regulations.

These regulations come into operation on 1st July 1997 but have effect for the purposes of regulation 5 on and after 31st March 1996. Retrospective effect is authorised by Articles 14 and 15 of the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.