Fire Services Act 1947

26 Firemen's Pension Scheme.

(1) The Secretary of State may by order bring into operation a scheme, to be known as the Firemen's Pension Scheme, whereby provision is made, subject to the provisions of this section and of the Scheme, for the payment by fire authorities and such other authorities as may be specified in the Scheme of pensions, allowances and gratuities to persons employed as members of fire brigades maintained in pursuance of this Act who retire from such employment on or after the appointed day or die on or after the appointed day while so employed, and to their widows, children and dependants.

(2) The Firemen's Pension Scheme (hereafter in this and the next following section referred to as " the Scheme ") may include provision—

(a) for defining the classes of persons employed as aforesaid in respect of whose service awards, or awards of any class specified in the Scheme, may be made under the Scheme-, and in particular for excluding in relation to any such awards or class of awards persons who are not wholly and permanently so employed or who are so employed on such ancillary duties as may be specified in the Scheme, and for treating, for all or any of the purposes of the Scheme, employment in Great Britain or elsewhere on duties connected with the provision of fire services, being employment (otherwise than as a member of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of this Act), of such classes as may be specified in the Scheme, as if it were employment as a member of such a brigade;

(b) for reckoning, for all or any of the purposes of the Scheme, such employment, whether before or after the appointed day (other than employment as a member of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of this Act) as may be specified in the Scheme as if it were employment as a member of such a brigade, either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as may be so specified and either as respects the whole of service in employment so specified or as respects such fraction thereof as may be so specified;

(c) for the making by persons in respect of whose service awards may be made under the Scheme of such contributions as may be specified by the Scheme, and, in such circumstances as may be so specified, for the repayment of contributions so made or their application in such manner and for the benefit of such persons as may be so specified;

(d) for substituting, for all or any of the purposes of the Scheme, the Secretary of State for a fire authority in relation to any employment specified under paragraph (b) of this subsection;

(e) for the making to a fire authority by the Secretary of State or another fire authority, or by any other authority by which a person has been employed in employment specified under paragraph (b) of this subsection or which has incurred any liability in respect of the payment of a pension in the event of a person's retirement from employment so specified of payments in respect of previous service (whether before or after the appointed day) on a person's entry on employment with the fire brigade maintained by the first-mentioned fire authority, and for the making to the Secretary of State by a fire authority or any such other authority as aforesaid of payments in respect of previous service (whether before or after the appointed day) on a person's entry on employment specified under paragraph (b) of this subsection;

(f) for the reimbursement of payments under the last foregoing paragraph out of any superannuation fund to which contributions have been made in respect of the previous service to which the payments related;

(g) for the making, where a person enters on employment with a fire authority in a case where no payment falls to be made under paragraph (e) of this subsection, of payments in respect of previous service with that authority out of any superannuation fund to which contributions have been made in respect of the previous service;

(h) for the conditions as to evidence or otherwise subject to which any award under the Scheme may be made, for the manner in which any question specified in the Scheme arising under the Scheme is to be determined, and for appeals from determinations of any such question ;

(i) for excluding or modifying, in the case of an injury in respect of which an award is made under the Scheme, being an injury sustained in the execution of duty in such circumstances as may be specified in the Scheme, any other right against the Crown or other authority in whose employment the injury occurred to compensation or damages in respect of the injury or the consequences thereof, so however that no provision made by virtue of this paragraph shall affect any right under the [9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 62.] National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1946, or the [9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 67.] National Insurance Act, 1946;

(j) for such incidental and supplemental matters as appear to the Secretary of State expedient for the purposes of the Scheme, including provisions as to funds for defraying liabilities under the Scheme and provision for the like purposes as under the enactments in the [15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 47.] Fire Brigade Pensions Act, 1925, specified in the first column of the Third Schedule to this Act (which relate to the matters specified in the second column of that Schedule) was made in relation to awards under the said Act of 1925.

In this section the expression " employment " includes engagement in any service.

(3) The maximum pension under the Scheme shall not be provided for a person unless he has been engaged in service which is to be reckoned for the purpose of his pension under the Scheme for a period of not less than thirty years, and no pension shall be provided under the Scheme for any person on retirement unless—

(a) he has been engaged in such service as aforesaid for a period of not less than twenty-five years; or

(b) his retirement is caused by such incapacity or infirmity of mind or body (occasioned otherwise than as mentioned in the next following paragraph) as may be specified in the Scheme, and he has been engaged in such service for a period of not less than ten years; or

(c) his retirement is caused through incapacity of mind or body occasioned by an injury received in the execution of his duty without his own default or in such circumstances that the Scheme applies in like manner as if it had been occasioned by an injury so received; or

(d) he is compelled to retire on the ground of age.

(4) If a person obtains or attempts to obtain for himself or any other person—

(a) any award under the Scheme, or

(b) any sum in respect of the repayment or application of contributions made under the Scheme,

by means of any false declaration, false certificate, false representation, false evidence or personation or by malingering or feigning disease or infirmity or by maiming or injuring himself, or causing himself to be maimed or injured, or otherwise producing disease or infirmity, or by any other fraudulent conduct, he shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding twenty-five pounds, and (without prejudice to the provisions of paragraph (j) of subsection (2) of this section) the Scheme may authorise, in the case of a person who has been convicted of an offence under this subsection, the forfeiture, in whole or in part, of any award or sum so obtained.

(5) The Scheme may be varied by a subsequent order of the Secretary of State under this section.

(6) Any order under this section shall be made with the approval of the Treasury, and after consultation with the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council.