Explanatory note

These Regulations make amendments to the Regulations listed in the Schedule (“the listed Regulations”) in consequence of changes made by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (“the 2011 Act”) to policing governance in England and Wales.

The listed Regulations make provision for the funding and administration of schemes for the payment of pensions and injury benefits to police officers. They confer powers and impose duties on police authorities in that regard. In practice, those powers and duties are exercised or carried out in large measure by police staff employed by the police authority but under the direction and control of the Chief Officer of Police.

Sections 1 and 3 of the 2011 Act abolish police authorities in England and Wales, with the exception of the Common Council of the City of London, replacing them with police and crime commissioners and, in the metropolitan police district, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. Police and crime commissioners and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime are known collectively as “elected local policing bodies” (see sections 96(2) and 102(1) of the 2011 Act).

Section 4(1) of, and paragraph 2 of Schedule 2 to, the 2011 Act establish the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (“the CPM”) and chief constables of police forces in England and Wales as corporations sole with the capacity to employ staff and hold funds in their own right. Sections 18 and 19 of the 2011 Act prohibit an elected local policing body from arranging for any constable (including a chief constable or the CPM) or a member of the staff of a constable from exercising the body’s functions. The Act envisages that police staff previously employed by police authorities but under the direction and control of the chief constable or the CPM will now be employed by the chief constable or the CPM.

The 2011 Act amends the Police Pensions Act 1976 (“the 1976 Act”) to reflect these changes (see paragraphs 128 to 133 of Schedule 16 to the 2011 Act). References to a police authority in the 1976 Act are replaced with references to a “police pension authority”, which is defined for the purposes of England and Wales as the chief constable, the CPM or, in relation to the City of London, the Common Council (see paragraph 132(3) of Schedule 16 to the 2011 Act). The intention is that, in relation to police forces in England and Wales other than the City of London Police, the chief constable or the CPM and his staff will be responsible for the funding and administration of police pension schemes and will exercise functions previously exercised by the police authority. The amendments made to the listed Regulations by these Regulations reflect this intention.

Regulation 3 has the effect that, except as otherwise provided for in these Regulations, references to the police authority in the listed Regulations are replaced with references to the police pension authority. Regulation 4 makes an exception to this rule in the case of references to the police authority for Northern Ireland.

Regulations 5(5), 6(4) and 7(3) insert provision into those listed Regulations which establish the police pension and injury benefit schemes (namely the Police Pensions Regulations 1987, the Police Pensions Regulations 2006 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006) making particular provision for the pension of a chief constable or the CPM. The effect is that any power in those Regulations which involves the exercise of a discretion is exercised by the pension supervising authority (namely the elected local policing body: see paragraph 132(3) of Schedule 16 to the 2011 Act) rather than by the police pension authority. Thus the chief constable or the CPM will not take decisions (either personally or through his staff) in relation to his own pension.

Regulations 5(6), 6(6) and 796) have the effect that powers in relation to the forfeiture of any police pension are conferred on the pension supervising authority rather than the police pension authority, it being thought more appropriate that these powers should rest with the body responsible for maintaining the police force.

Regulations 7(7) and 8 amend provisions in the listed Regulations concerning the funding of police pensions, to reflect the fact that, in police forces maintained by an elected local policing body, the police pension fund will be controlled by the chief constable or the CPM, using monies provided by the elected local policing body.

The provisions of the 2011 Act making changes to policing governance arrangements in the metropolitan police district, including sections 3 and 4(1), will come into force on the same day as these Regulations, namely 16th January 2012. The provisions of the 2011 Act making changes in relation to police areas outside London will be brought into force on 22nd November 2012, on which date the first police and crime commissioners will take office. The provisions amending the 1976 Act will come into force on 16th January 2012, but the commencement order will contain transitory provision modifying the definition of “police pension authority” so that it includes a police authority, until section 1 of the 2011 Act comes into force. The effect will be that police authorities for police areas outside London will continue to exercise their police pensions functions until they are replaced by police and crime commissioners, at which point the functions will pass to the chief constable.

Regulation 9 secures the continuing validity of anything done by or in relation to a police authority under the listed Regulations.

Regulation 10 secures that, in the period before section 1 of the 2011 Act comes into force, references to the police fund in the listed Regulations continue to refer to the fund kept by the police authority in police areas outside London.