12.—(1) Except as provided by this Article, a new authority and any subsidiary of a new authority shall not without the consent of the Minister pay any pension or enter into any obligation under a pension scheme.
(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to—
(a)the payment of any pension in accordance with the terms of an established scheme as those terms stand immediately after the 1st January 1969 or are subsequently modified with the consent of the Minister, or
(b)the payment of any pension in pursuance of an obligation under a pension scheme entered into with the consent of the Minister after the said date, being a payment in accordance with that obligation as it subsists when first entered into or as it is subsequently modified with the said consent.
(3) Any consent given by the Minister for the purposes of this Article may be given for any case or description of case specified in the consent and may be given subject to conditions.