Explanatory note

These Regulations, which revoke and replace the Prime Ministers (Past Prime Ministers) Regulations 1972 and the Prime Ministers (Past Prime Ministers)(Amendment) Regulations 1979, apply the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 to the pensions of Prime Ministers subject to certain modifications.

The pensions of former Prime Ministers who ceased to hold office before 28th February 1991 were from that date increased by the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 to the level of the pension which would be payable to the current Prime Minister, if he ceased to hold office on that date. That pension was itself increased by the 1991 Act to one half of the salary of the Prime Minister at the date he ceased to hold office. The pensions of Prime Ministers who ceased to hold office before 28th February 1991, are, by virtue of regulation 4, deemed to have begun on that date instead of on the dates which applied under the previous regulations, and pensions increase will be payable on the whole of the amount as increased by the 1991 Act, as if they were pensions which began on that date. The former provisions, which ensured that the pensions of former Prime Ministers together with pensions increase would at no time exceed the pension which would be payable to the current Prime Minister, if he ceased to hold office, have been removed.

The effect of the application of the provisions of the 1971 Act to the pensions of Prime Ministers and of the revocation of the earlier modifications is that the pensions of Prime Ministers who cease to hold office after 28th February 1991 will be deemed to begin on the day following the last day of service in respect of which the pension is payable, in accordance with section 8(2) of the 1971 Act, and that Act will apply to those pensions without any modification.