{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/teachers-pensions-regulations-1997/regulation-E31",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/teachers-pensions-regulations-1997/regulation-E31.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1997/3001",
  "legislation_title": "The Teachers' Pensions Regulations 1997",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/teachers-pensions-regulations-1997",
  "path": "regulation/E31",
  "kind": "regulation",
  "number": "E31",
  "heading": "Average salary",
  "text": "(1) Subject to paragraph (11), a person’s average salary—\n(a) where the material part of his average salary service is one year or more, is his full salary for the best consecutive 365 days of that part, and\n(b) in any other case, is the average annual rate of his full salary for that part.\n(2) In determining, for the purposes of paragraph (1), what are the best consecutive 365 days of the material part of the person’s average salary service, days on which the person is not in pensionable employment are disregarded.\n(3) Average salary service comprises—\n(a) any period spent by the person in pensionable employment,\n(b) any period counting as reckonable service by virtue of regulation D4 (current period for which additional contributions have been paid), and\n(c) any period of comparable British service which began before 1st April 1974 and has not been followed by a period of pensionable employment and for which a transfer value has been accepted.\n(4) The material part of a person’s average salary service is—\n(a) where the person has less than 3 years of such service, the whole of it, or\n(b) in any other case, the last 3 years of it.\n(5) In determining the material part of a person’s average salary service, periods when the person was not in pensionable employment shall be disregarded and accordingly the period of 3 years referred to in paragraph (4) may be discontinuous.\n(6) For the purposes of paragraphs (2), (3)(a) and (5) a person who is employed under a contract whereby that person is available for work but only undertakes (and accordingly is only paid for) work when, and for periods, requested by the employer is not treated as being in pensionable employment during periods when he is not undertaking work (whether or not such a person would be so treated apart from this paragraph).\n(7) Subject to paragraphs (8) and (9), a person’s full salary—\n(a) for a period falling within paragraph (3)(a), is his contributable salary for the period of pensionable employment, disregarding any reduction during sick leave or maternity leave,\n(b) for a period falling within paragraph (3)(b), is the notional salary by reference to which the additional contributions paid under regulation C9 or, as the case may be, C10 were calculated, and\n(c) for a period falling within paragraph (3)(c), is what would have been his salary for the purpose of calculating benefits under the pension scheme to which he was subject in the relevant employment.\n(8) For—\n(a) a period of pensionable employment, or\n(b) a period counting as reckonable service by virtue of regulation D4,\nbeginning after 31st July 1975 and ending before 1st August 1978, a person’s full salary includes any sums that would have been payable to him if payment of them had not been withheld, whether by virtue of an enactment or otherwise, in order to comply with limits referred to in section 1 of the Remuneration, Charges and Grants Act 1975.\n(9) For—\n(a) a period of pensionable employment, or\n(b) a period counting as reckonable service by virtue of regulation D4\nbeginning after 31st March 1979 and ending before 1st September 1980, a person’s full salary is the notional salary resulting from the application to him of the Teachers' Superannuation (Notional Salaries) Regulations 1981.\n(10) Where a person has during the material part of his average salary service spent any period in part-time employment the full salary for that period shall be the amount which it would have been if the employment had been full-time during that period.\n(11) Subject to paragraph (12), where at any time during the material part of a person’s average salary service a person has received an increase in his contributable salary such that—\n(BA-1)×100-C-10 is greater than zero where—\nA is the person’s salary before the increase (or, in a case where the person has previously received an increase in salary such as is mentioned in this paragraph but no election under regulation G8 is made, the salary which the person is treated as receiving in accordance with the provision of this paragraph),\nB is the person’s salary after the increase, and\nC is the standard increase of salary (expressed as a percentage),\nthe person is treated as having received an increase in his contributable salary such that his salary after the increase is\nA(1+C+10100) unless an election is made under regulation G8(3) to pay the additional contribution referred to in that regulation.\n(12) Paragraph (11) does not apply—\n(a) in relation to a person who becomes entitled to the payment of retirement benefits by virtue of regulation E4(4),\n(b) for the purpose of calculating—\n(i) a death grant under regulation E20, or\n(ii) a pension payable under regulation E28 (spouses' and nominated beneficiaries' long-term pensions) or E29 (children’s long-term pensions) in relation to a person who died while in pensionable employment, or\n(c) to any increase in contributable salary which was received while the person was employed by an employer other than the body which was the person’s employer immediately before he became entitled to the payment of retirement benefits.\n(13) For the purposes of paragraph (11), paragraph (12) and this paragraph—\n(a) where a person receives more than one increase in salary in a financial year the increases taken together shall be treated as one increase and accordingly, in paragraph (11), A is the person’s salary before the first increase and B is the person’s salary after the last increase;\n(b) a discretionary increase of salary is an increase received by a person to whom on the material date the 1991 Act applied which arises from—\n(i) the person’s promotion such that his salary is based on a different pay spine; or\n(ii) the person being paid at the discretion of the body responsible for determining the person’s salary at a higher point within the pay spine applicable to him;\n(c) the material date is the date on which the increase of salary took effect;\n(d) the standard increase of salary is—\n(i) in the case of a person to whom on the material date the 1991 Act applied, the increase, if any, other than a discretionary increase of salary, that would have been received on the material date by the person in question in accordance with any order under section 2 of the 1991 Act for the time being in force or under any document referred to in such an order, had he not received the increase in salary referred to in paragraph (11) or, if he would have received no increase on that date in accordance with any such order or document, the next increase other than a discretionary increase of salary that would have been received by him in accordance with any such order or document;\n(ii) In the case of a person to whom on the material date the 1991 Act does not apply, the average percentage of the increases, if any, that would have been received on the material date by persons (“the comparable employees”) who were employed at the school or institution where the person in question was employed and whose circumstances corresponded most closely to those of that person or, if there were no comparable employees, by persons who were employed as teachers at that school or institution or, if the comparable employees or the persons so employed as teachers (as the case may be) would have received no increases on that date, the next increases they would have received;\n(e) where a body becomes a person’s employer by virtue of any enactment regarding the transfer of staff or the transfer of rights and liabilities under a contract of employment that body and the person’s previous employer shall be taken to be the same employer.\n(14) Where an election under regulation G8 is made after the person becomes entitled to payment of retirement benefits the person is, until the date on which the election is received by the Secretary of State, entitled to retirement benefits calculated on the basis only of the contributable salary he is treated as receiving in the absence of such an election and accordingly as from the date on which the election is received by the Secretary of State the person becomes entitled to—\n(a) a lump sum payment equal to the difference between the retirement lump sum to which the person is entitled taking into account the election and the retirement lump sum previously paid to the person; and\n(b) a retirement pension taking into account the election.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "1975 c. 57; section 1 was amended, and the period for which it had effect extended to end with 31st July 1978, by the Price Commission Act 1977 (c. 33), section 17; references to limits set out in documents laid before Parliament in 1976 and 1977 were added by S.I. 1976/1097, 1977/1294."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "S.I. 1981/934."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "added",
      "affecting": "uksi/2000/665",
      "affecting_title": "The Teachers' Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2000"
    },
    {
      "type": "amended",
      "affecting": "uksi/2000/665",
      "affecting_title": "The Teachers' Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2000"
    },
    {
      "type": "am",
      "affecting": "uksi/2008/541",
      "affecting_title": "The Teachers’ Pensions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2008"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/3001/regulation/E31",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:40:26.186253+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."
}