Scottish Police Federation Crest
Tayside Joint Branch Board - Scottish Police Federation
INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS

27-06-2010

On the 20th June 2010 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt. Hon George Osborne MP announced that John Hutton had accepted his invitation to chair the independent Public Service Pensions Commission.

The Commission will undertake a fundamental structural review of public service pension provision by Budget 2011. It will produce an interim report in September 2010 ahead of the Spending Review. The Commission’s terms of reference are:

To conduct a fundamental structural review of public service pension provision and to make recommendations to the Chancellor and Chief Secretary on pension arrangements that are sustainable and affordable in the long term, fair to both the public service workforce and the taxpayer and consistent with the fiscal challenges ahead, while protecting accrued rights.
In reaching its recommendations, the Commission is to have regard to:

• the growing disparity between public service and private sector pension provision, in the context of the overall reward package – including the impact on labour market mobility between public and private sectors and pensions as a barrier to greater plurality of provision of public services;

• the needs of public service employers in terms of recruitment and retention;

• the need to ensure that future provision is fair across the workforce;

• how risk should be shared between the taxpayer and employee;

• which organisations should have access to public service schemes;

• implementation and transitional arrangements for any recommendations; and

• wider Government policy to encourage adequate saving for retirement and longer working lives.

As part of the review, the Commission is invited to produce an interim report by the end of September 2010. This should consider the case for delivering savings on public service pensions within the spending review period – consistent with the Government’s commitment to protect those on low incomes - to contribute towards the reduction of the structural deficit.

It is as yet unclear what impact this will have on the devolved police pension arrangements in Scotland.



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