Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of allowing police widows and widowers to retain their widows' pension upon remarriage, co-habitation or civil partnership irrespective of the circumstances of the death of their spouses.

Survivors of officers who were members of the 2006 and 2015 police pension schemes are, since 2006 and irrespective of the circumstances of the death of the officer, paid survivor pensions for life.

On 18 January 2016, the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 were amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers in England and Wales who have died on duty and who qualified for a survivor pension after 1 April 2015 to continue to receive their survivors’ benefits for life. Successive governments have been clear that we have a general presumption against making retrospective changes to public service pension schemes. However, the Government believes the arguments for making a limited exception for the widows of police officers who died on duty are sufficiently compelling in this case.