Judicial Pensions Regulations 2022

Rachel Reeves Excerpts

Thursday 21st April 2022 General Committees

[Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)]

These regulations are to be welcomed for bringing clarity after the period of legislative conflict that followed the introduction of the judicial pension scheme in 2015. The Minister will recall that in January 2017, an employment tribunal found in the case of McCloud v Ministry of Justice that the transitional arrangements for judges for the introduction of JPS 2015 were not lawful under EU equality law and under the Equality Act 2010. A key issue was the loss sustained by unprotected and taper-protected judges due to the tax-registered status of the 2015 scheme. Judges alone suffered the combined effect of significant adverse changes to their pension scheme and radical change to the tax treatment of their pensions.

I therefore note the Ministry of Justice’s intention that a uniform contribution rate would promote fairness between members, remove anomalies that occur at the boundaries of different bands in a tiered structure, and ensure that fee-paid judges who sit the same number of days contribute the same amount to their pension, regardless of their sitting pattern. We would, however, welcome the Minister’s thoughts on the matters raised by the judicial associations, which suggest that some judges may be financially worse off under the new regulations due to the apparently less favourable lump sum death benefits and uniform contribution rate. Has the Department made any assessment of the number of judicial office holders who may find the new regulations to be less favourable?

Regarding the new proposal, I would like to raise the question of equity for newer judges and those who intend to come into the system. It has been argued that if the new pension scheme is less favourable than the existing framework, the younger, less experienced judges will be the ones to lose out financially in the long run. The Council of Her Majesty’s District Judges responded to the new pension scheme by saying that even with the time-limited mitigation that the Minister referred to, it is difficult to support a proposal whereby the least well-paid judicial tier is the one that will suffer a month-on-month reduction in income. Does the Department recognise this, and how does it plan to mitigate its effects for those who argue the scheme is going to affect those coming into the judicial system? Does the Ministry of Justice believe that this could not only affect the retention rate but dissuade up-and-coming, newer legal minds from joining the judicial service in the longer term, as it may not benefit them financially?

We are all acutely aware that the court backlog currently stands at 60,000, and the availability of experienced judges will be vital in reducing that figure. As such, while we welcome a uniform system, it would be helpful if the Minister could address some of those concerns so that we can ensure the new system works for everyone moving forward.