The Firefighters' Compensation Scheme (England) Order 2006

Citation, commencement, application and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Firefighters' Compensation Scheme (England) Order 2006 and shall come into force on 7th August 2006; but—

(a) rule 3 of Part 2 of the Compensation Scheme (compensation for death or permanent incapacity while on duty), and so much of that Scheme as relates to that rule, shall have effect from 1st April 2000; and

(b) the remainder of the Compensation Scheme shall have effect from 1st April 2006.

(2) This Order applies in relation to England only(1).

(3) In this Order—

“the Compensation Scheme” means the Firefighters' Compensation Scheme (England) 2006, set out in the Schedule to this Order; and

“the Pension Scheme” means the Scheme set out in Schedule 2 to the Firemen’s Pension Scheme Order 1992(2).

New compensation scheme for firefighters

2.—(1) Subject to articles 3 and 4, the Compensation Scheme (which makes provision for the payment of pensions, allowances and gratuities to and in respect of persons who die or are permanently disabled as the result of an injury sustained or disease contracted while employed by a fire and rescue authority) shall have effect; and the corresponding provisions of the Pension Scheme shall cease to have effect.

(2) The corresponding provisions of the Pension Scheme and the provisions of the Compensation Scheme to which they correspond are set out in Schedule 2 to this Order.

General transitional provision

3.—(1) Where—

(a) a provision of the Compensation Scheme (“the new provision”) re-enacts a provision of the Pension Scheme (“the old provision”) with any modification, and

(b) a person to whom a protected benefit was being paid or might become payable is placed in a worse position than he would have been in if the old provision had continued to have effect,

he may, by giving written notice to the fire and rescue authority liable or prospectively liable for payment of the benefit, elect that the new provision is to apply in relation to the benefit as if it had re-enacted the old provision without modification.

(2) Notice under paragraph (1) must be given not later than 30th September 2006.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1), a protected benefit is one paid, or capable of becoming payable, to or in respect of a person who, before 1st April 2006, ceased to be a member of the fire and rescue service or died.

Transitional provision: decisions and determinations made before 1st April 2006

4.—(1) With the exception of rule 3 of Part 2, the Compensation Scheme shall not have effect in relation to a person in respect of whom a determination or decision under the Pension Scheme relevant to whether permanent disablement has been occasioned by a qualifying injury (within the meaning of rule A9 of the Pension Scheme) has been made before 1st April 2006.

(2) In a case to which paragraph (1) applies, the provisions of the Pension Scheme, in the form in which they existed immediately before 1st April 2006, shall continue to have effect in relation to such a person.

Signed by authority of one of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State

Phil Woolas

Minister of State

Department for Communities and Local Government

10th July 2006