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Have your say on the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices [HL] Bill

10 January 2022

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Do you have relevant expertise and experience or a special interest in the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices [HL] Bill 2021-22, which is currently passing through Parliament?

If so, you can submit your views in writing to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee which is going to consider this Bill.

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration.

The Public Bill Committee will scrutinise the Bill line by line. The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be on Thursday 27 January and the Committee is scheduled to report by Tuesday 1 February. However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Tuesday 1 February. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible.

Aims of the Bill

The Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices [HL] Bill has been through its House of Lords stages and is scheduled to have its second reading in the House of Commons on 5 January 2022.

It consists of four parts, including 120 clauses and four schedules:

  • Part One would implement a remedy to age discrimination identified by the Court of Appeal in Lord Chancellor v McCloud, Secretary of State for the Home Department v Sargeant (the McCloud judgment) in December 2018.
  • Part Two would enable the Treasury to establish new public service pension schemes for members and beneficiaries of two pension schemes which provide benefits to former members of staff for two companies (Bradford and Bingley and Northern Rock) taken into public ownership as a result of the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
  • Part Three would increase the mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 75 and make changes to their allowances.
  • Part Four would set out procedure for regulations and for the Bill to extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. As it includes matters within the competency of the devolved legislatures, legislative consent motions are being sought.

The provisions of the Bill extend and apply to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Because it engages the Sewel Convention (under which the UK Parliament will not normally legislate with regard to matters that are within the legislative competence of the devolved assemblies), the consent of devolved legislatures was sought.[1] By the time of the Bill’s Third Reading in the House of Lords on 6 December 2021, the Northern Ireland Executive had passed a legislative consent motion, the Welsh Senedd was in the process of considering one, and the Scottish Government was considering bringing one forward.[2]

Information produced by the Government to support the debates included: Impact Assessment, December 2021; Equality Impact Assessment, December 2021; Policy Statement – Chapters 1 and 4, October 2021; Delegated Powers Memorandum, December 2021. 

Follow the progress of the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices [HL] Bill 2021-22

The Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices [HL] Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 19 July 2021. It had its Second Reading in the House of Lords on 7 September 2021. It went through its Committee Stage in one day, on 11 October 2021, Report Stage was on 29 November 2021 and Third Reading on 6 December. It was introduced into the House of Commons (Bill 211, 2021-22) the following day. Second Reading was held on 5 January 2022.

There will be no oral evidence sessions.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration and possibly reflect it in an amendment. The order in which amendments are taken in Committee will be available in due course under Selection of Amendments on the Bill documents pages. Once the Committee has dealt with an amendment it will not revisit it.

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be on Thursday 27 January and the Committee is scheduled to report by Tuesday 1 February. However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Tuesday 1 February. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible.

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk

Further guidance on submitting written evidence can be found here.

Image: Parliamentary Copyright

[1] Bill 211-EN para 81-48 and Annex A

[2] HL Deb 6 December 2021 c1652

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