Amendment of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013
3. After regulation 3 (active membership) insert—
“Civil servants etc engaged in probation provision
3A.—(1) A person who meets Condition A and Condition B shall for the purposes of these Regulations be deemed to be in the employment of the Secretary of State.
(2) Condition A is that the person is employed in the civil service of the State.
(3) Condition B is that the person is engaged in probation provision within the meaning of section 2 of the Offender Management Act 2007 (responsibility for ensuring the provision of probation services)(1).
(4) Upon and following the transfer of the responsibility for probation services from a probation trust to another person as a result of arrangements made for the provision of probation services under section 3 of the Offender Management Act 2007 (power to make arrangements for the provision of probation services), any provision of these Regulations which confers a function on a body by virtue of being or having been a member’s employer shall, subject to paragraph (6), have effect as if the Secretary of State were the employer of a person to whom paragraph (5) applies.
(5) This paragraph applies to—
(a)any deferred member, deferred pensioner member, pensioner member or person entitled to a refund of contributions under a local government pension scheme by virtue of employment with a probation trust, or with a predecessor local probation board or probation committee, which ended before the transfer of the responsibilities referred to in paragraph (4) and in respect of whom the probation trust was the Scheme employer immediately prior to the transfer of responsibilities referred to in paragraph (4);
(b)any member who becomes a deferred member, deferred pensioner member or pensioner member after the transfer of responsibilities referred to in paragraph (4) above who is a member of the Scheme by virtue of employment with a Scheme employer who is engaged in the provision of probation services (but only in respect of benefits relating to periods of membership whilst the member was engaged in the provision of probation services or periods of membership which have been aggregated with such periods, or benefits derived from a transfer into the Scheme during such periods of membership) and:
(i)either that employment was continuous with the same Scheme employer or it was compulsorily transferred on one or more occasions to another Scheme employer engaged in the provision of probation services;
(ii)the admission agreement under which that member was participating in the Scheme has terminated or the Scheme employer that last employed the member has ceased to be a Scheme employer engaged in the provision of probation services in relation to that employment; and
(iii)the member was in the employment of a Scheme employer engaged in the provision of probation services at a time when that employer was in the ownership of the Secretary of State;
(c)a survivor member or pension credit member who is entitled to a survivor’s pension or a children’s pension or a pension credit (as the case may be) by virtue of the membership of the Scheme of a person to whom paragraph 5(a) or paragraph 5(b) applies;
(d)a person specified in arrangements made under section 3 of the Offender Management Act 2007 as a person to whom this paragraph applies; or
(e)such other person who is or was employed by a person engaged, either currently or in the past, in the provision of probation services or in activities associated with the provision of probation services, as the Secretary of State may specify as a person to whom this paragraph applies.
(6) Paragraphs (4) and (5) do not apply in respect of any member of a local government pension scheme in respect of whose benefits an exit payment has been made which has met the liabilities of the fund in respect of those benefits.
(7) For the purposes of this regulation—
“exit payment” means a payment of that description under regulation 64 (special circumstances where revised actuarial valuations and certificates must be obtained) or its equivalent under any of the Earlier Schemes;
“probation trust” means a trust established under section 5 of the Offender Management Act 2007;
“a local government pension scheme” means the Scheme or any of the Earlier Schemes; and
“Earlier Schemes” has the meaning given in regulation 1(6) of the Local Government Pension Scheme (Transitional Provisions, Savings and Amendment) Regulations 2014(2).”