Contingent Decision Application Process: FOI Review

Information requested

Original request: 202400445320

1. Can you please tell me the date when the Contingent Decision Application process was opened up for police pension 1987 members as per publication of communication on SPPA website, specifically members who opted out?

2. When did the Contingent Decision Applicaiton process close for police pension 1987 members as per publication of communication on SPPA website, specifically members who opted out?

3. Please list the dates and methods of communication published to inform police pension 1987 members of the Contingent Decision Pause.

4. Please explain how S4(2) through to S4(8) of the Public Services Pension & Judicial Act 2022 is relevant to police 1987 members who opted out of the 2015 Care for less than 5 years during the Remedy period?

5. How long is the Contingent Decision Pause anticipated to be paused for 1987 members?

Response

I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) with respect to:

Question 4

Please explain how S4(2) through to S4(8) of the Public Services Pension & Judicial Act 2022 is relevant to police 1987 members who opted out of the 2015 Care for less than 5 years during the Remedy period?

Our Response

Section 4(2) through to Section 4(8) form part of Section 4 of the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022. This section defines the meaning of the relevant Chapter 1 legacy scheme in relation to eligible members including those who opted out of the scheme during the remedy period. More information on this Section of PSPJOA 2022 is found in the explanatory notes Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices.

Your review request

I have received my reply to my FOI enquiry. Question 4 asked for a specific scenario of specific pension members and the answer is generic to the contingent decision pause. Could Question 4 please be reviewed and answered in relevance to what is being asked.

I have concluded that the original response should be confirmed, though a link to the available explanatory notes should have been included within our original response.

To undertake this review, I considered the wording of question 4. My interpretation of the question asked is that it is focused on matters of ‘relevance’ in respect to the highlighted sections of the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 in relation to the Police 1987 members opting out of the 2015 Care for less than 5 years during the Remedy period.

When reviewing SPPA’s response, my expectations were such that the description of ‘relevance’ would direct the crux of the response and describe the appropriate connection and meaning of the legislation in respect to the specifically described cohort of police members.

It is my view that SPPA’s response reasonably detailed how these legislative sections should be considered relevant by the cohort. The reason being that it outlines both the meaning of the legacy scheme and the eligibility of those opting out of the scheme during the remedy period. As the response provided did not include the web address of detailed explanatory notes I accept that SPPA’s response could have been more helpful by directly signposting to explanatory information in the public domain. I include the link here:  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/7/pdfs/ukpgaen_20220007_en.pdf

Based upon my review the response and the cross referencing with the publicly available explanation notes, I determine the relevance to be that the Act takes members back to the last open scheme (legacy) and for the Police cohort described this would be the 2006 scheme (as the 1987 and 1992 schemes were closed). I am inclined to disagree that Question 4 asks “...for a specific scenario of specific pension members…” as the legislative relevance (of sections 4(2) to section 4(8) of the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022) can be encapsulated by the broader contingent decisions pause.

In conclusion, I uphold SPPA’s original response to question 4 but recognise the omission of a direct web address for the explanatory notes.

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