{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/national-health-service-superannuation-scheme-etc-miscellaneous-amendments-scotland-regulations-2013/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/national-health-service-superannuation-scheme-etc-miscellaneous-amendments-scotland-regulations-2013/note.json",
  "legislation": "ssi/2013/109",
  "legislation_title": "The National Health Service Superannuation Scheme etc. (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2013",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/national-health-service-superannuation-scheme-etc-miscellaneous-amendments-scotland-regulations-2013",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nThese Regulations amend the National Health Service Superannuation Scheme for Scotland (“the scheme”), the rules of which are set out in the National Health Service Superannuation Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (“the 1995 Section”) and the National Health Service Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2008 (“the 2008 Section”) (together “both Sections”).\nRegulation 1 sets out when each change takes effect.\nThe following changes are made to both Sections—\nregulations 3, 4, 6, 29, 32, 49(a), (b), (d) and (e) and 53 provide that where a person has previously opted out this ceases to have effect on automatic enrolment or re-enrolment: but a person may, on automatic enrolment or re-enrolment, still opt out on each occasion;\nregulations 10 and 35 remove, from 1st April 2013, the option for employers to pay, in five annual instalments, certain additional contributions in relation to a redundancy pension;\nregulations 11 and 38 require an employer to certify entitlement to a redundancy pension;\nregulations 14, 39 and 57 provide that if the amount of the child allowance or pension for the first 6 month period is more than the member’s pension, it will be that higher amount;\nregulations 18, 19, 36, 37, 55 and 56 make further provision in relation to the cancellation of an option to pay additional contributions to purchase pension purchase;\nregulations 22, 47 and 64 empower the Scottish Ministers to require certain material (including evidence of entitlement) to be provided by a person in receipt of a benefit, and if the person fails to provide it, to withhold all or part of a benefit payable to that person;\nregulations 23 and 27 remove requirements to prepare actuarial reports; and\nregulations 24 and 28 remove provision in relation to cost sharing, and regulations 9, 25, 33, 34 and 54 remove (in effect) the associated requirements to consider advice.\nThe following additional changes are made to the 1995 Section—\nregulations 5, 7, 8, 16 and 17 are ancillary to the changes made in relation to opt outs: in particular, regulation 7 bars a person who has opted out from rejoining during a period of absence from work;\nregulations 12 and 13 ensure that the most beneficial pension is paid when a marriage to a nominated partner takes place post retirement;\nregulation 15 reflects the fact that protected rights were abolished by the Pensions Act 2008 with effect from 6th April 2012;\nregulation 20 add further categories of employment to the list in regulation S1(5); and\nregulation 21 clarifies provision for reduced pensions on return to NHS employment.\nThe following additional changes are made to the 2008 Section—\nregulations 30 and 50 clarify the circumstances in which qualifying service before and after a break in service of less than one month is to be treated as a continuous period;\nregulations 31 and 52 are supplementary to the changes made in relation to opt outs: in particular, these provisions enable an eligible person to opt back in;\nregulations 40 and 58 ensure that additional pension is taken into account;\nregulations 41 to 46 and 59 to 63 replace references to “scheme year” with “financial year” for consistency with the 1995 Section, and clarify how abatement works when a member’s pension is in payment for only part of the year;\nregulations 48 and 65 make minor changes to clarify a reference;\nregulations 49(c) corrects an error so that “appropriate proportion” equates to 37.5%; and\nregulation 51 provides for the length of a relevant absence to be notified to the Scottish Ministers for the purposes of calculating a member’s pensionable earnings under Part 3.\nPart 4 (regulations 66 to 70) makes minor changes to the National Health Service (Scotland) (Injury Benefits) Regulations 1998 in connection with amendments made to those Regulations by the National Health Service (Scotland) (Injury Benefits) Amendment Regulations 2013 (S.S.I. 2013/52). In particular, regulation 69 specifies the period within which claims must be made.\nRegulation 71 provides that certain persons who may be detrimentally affected by these Regulations may elect for the provisions not to apply to them.",
  "extent": "S",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2013/109/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T21:40:14.932977+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."
}