{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/local-government-pension-scheme-civil-partnership-amendment-england-and-wales-regulations-2005/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/local-government-pension-scheme-civil-partnership-amendment-england-and-wales-regulations-2005/note.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/2005/3069",
  "legislation_title": "The Local Government Pension Scheme (Civil Partnership) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Regulations 2005",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/local-government-pension-scheme-civil-partnership-amendment-england-and-wales-regulations-2005",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nThe amendments in these Regulations provide survivor benefits for same sex partners of Local Government Pension Scheme members or eligible persons where the same sex partners have registered a civil partnership under the terms of the Civil Partnership Act 2004. Section 12 of the Superannuation Regulations 1972 provides that regulations made under section 7 of that Act may have retrospective effect: the changes made to the 1997 Regulations have effect from 1st April 1998. This retrospection, and the amendments to the Transitional Provisions Regulations, are necessary to apply the provisions to deferred or pensioner members who enter into a civil partnership having ceased employment before these Regulations come into force.\nThe Regulations amend—\n(1) The Local Government (Discretionary Payments) Regulations 1996 (“the 1996 Regulations” – amended by regulation 2);\n(2) The Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 1997 (“the 1997 Regulations” – amended by regulation 3);\n(3) The Local Government Pension Scheme (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 1997 (“the Transitional Provisions Regulations” – amended by regulation 4); and\n(4) The Local Government (Early Termination of Employment) (Discretionary Compensation)(England and Wales) Regulations 2000 (“the 2000 Regulations” – amended by regulation 5).\nThe changes to the 1996 and 2000 Regulations provide that surviving civil partners will qualify for survivor benefits in the same way as spouses where a person ceases employment after 5th April 1988 and subsequently dies.\nThe changes to the 1997 Regulations and the Transitional Provisions Regulations are as follows—\nsurviving civil partners of scheme members, including those who left the scheme between 6th April 1988 and 5th December 2005, will qualify for survivor benefits in the same circumstances as spouses;\nwhere a surviving civil partner is eligible for benefits and a person’s “membership” is relevant to the eligibility for and level of those benefits, only such “membership” after 5th April 1988 is taken into account.\nIn addition, the changes to the 1997 Regulations include minor amendments dealing with pension sharing on divorce and its application to the dissolution of a civil partnership.\nSome bodies within the business, charity or voluntary sectors are employers within the Local Government Pension Scheme. There will be costs in public service pension schemes from extending survivor benefits to include civil partners. A Regulatory Impact Assessment was published alongside the Civil Partnership Act 2004, which assesses the impact of the Act on the business, charity and voluntary sectors, and outlines the cost implications to public service pension schemes. Accordingly, a separate Regulatory Impact Assessment was not produced for these Regulations. The final Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Civil Partnership Act 2004 has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament and can be viewed at http://www.dti.gov.uk/access/ria/index.htm#equality.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/3069/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T04:47:30.614453+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}