Explanatory note

These Regulations further amend the National Health Service Pension Scheme Regulations 1995 (“the Pension Scheme Regulations”) which provide for the superannuation of persons engaged in the National Health Service, and—in one respect—the National Health Service (Compensation for Premature Retirement) Regulations 1981 (“the Compensation Regulations”) which provide for the compensation payable in respect of such persons where they retire prematurely by reason of redundancy or in the interests of the efficiency of the Service.

Provision is made in particular for the inclusion in the Scheme of persons employed in Primary Care Trusts, which were established pursuant to Part I of the Health Act 1999 to provide, and arrange the provision of, certain services under the National Health Service Act 1977. For this purpose, amendments are made in regulations B2, E3, E4 and R11 of, and in Schedule 2 to, the Pension Scheme Regulations to include references to Primary Care Trusts, and in regulation A2 to include such Trusts in the definition of “employing authority” and to make related changes in other definitions (regulations 3, 4, 5(2), 6, 12 and 15(b)–(d)).

In relation to early retirement pensions under regulation E3 of the Pension Scheme Regulations, provision is made for a member’s employment to be certified as terminated in the interests of the service only where his employing authority agrees (regulation 5(1)), and for the reckoning of service in part-time employment for the purposes of that pension (regulation 11) and of associated payments under the Compensation Regulations (regulation 16); and new arrangements are made for members to nominate someone other than their surviving spouse as the person who is to receive the lump sum payable on their death, with transitional protection for existing arrangements (regulations 7 and 17). Regulation L1 of the Pension Scheme Regulations is amended to enable a member who leaves pensionable employment after 30th March 2000 with preserved rights to elect to receive an actuarially reduced pension and lump sum after attaining the age of 50 (regulation 8), and Part S is amended to preclude the suspension of such a pension, or of a pension in payment under regulation E5, should the member return (after more than a month) to NHS employment while under the age of 60 (regulation 13). A new regulation T8 is inserted in the Pension Scheme Regulations to provide for interest to be paid in respect of delays in the payment of benefits (regulation 14).

These Regulations also amend the Pension Scheme Regulations to update references to Family Health Services Authorities (regulations 3, 9 and 15(a)), to take account of the introduction of consultant nurses (regulations 3 and 11), and to make other amendments of a minor or consequential nature.