Draft Judicial Pensions (Remediable Service etc.) Regulations 2023

Afzal Khan Excerpts

Wednesday 14th June 2023 General Committees

[Afzal Khan (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I start by declaring my interest, as I may be one of the people who benefits from the change to pensions scheme.

[The Chair]

Order. Presumably everyone here will; we will take it as read that everyone is declaring an interest. I do not believe there will be any problem with that.

[Afzal Khan]

I thank the Minister for outlining the provisions in the regulations. As he explained, they have a number of features that ensure that the technical aspects of the McCloud remedy will be implemented. Those include a remedy in respect of technical member options, provision for judges where there has been immediate detriment, and repayment mechanisms where judges owe sums to the scheme or the Ministry of Justice. The Opposition is pleased to support the statutory instrument.

I recognise that the Government have provided meaningful opportunities for engagement through consultation throughout their correction of the Court of Appeal’s 2018 finding of unlawful age discrimination. I am content that the changes being made to the judicial pensions system address that discrimination. I am glad to see that the Ministry of Justice’s equality impact statement considers that the regulations will have a positive equality impact, though of course that is to be expected from legislation that directly addreses discriminatory practices. I am also pleased that the equality statement commits the Government to monitoring equality impacts after the regulations have been introduced.

The matter has been ongoing for a number of years, and we are glad to see it draw to a conclusion at last. As I said before, we are pleased to support the Government on this SI.