Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023.

(2) These Regulations come into force on 2 February 2024.

Adjustment of Treasury valuation order

2.—(1) The Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2015( 3) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 3 (interpretation)—

(a) after the definition of “index adjustment” insert—

“index supplement” means—

(b) in paragraph (a) of the definition of “index adjustment” after “earnings” insert “and the index supplement”,

(c) in the definition of “in-service revaluation index” at the end insert “and in this scheme, includes the index supplement in such earnings”.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Accrued pensions of active members of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme in Scotland are revalued annually under the pension scheme set up under the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2015. The revaluation is in accordance with annual orders made by HM Treasury under section 9(2) of the Public Sector Pensions Act 2013. The increases provided for in the 2021 and 2022 Orders were based on provisional figures from November in each year, whereas in other years the calculations were based on final figures from December. HM Treasury considers that the December figures should have been used and these Regulations make the necessary changes.

Regulation 2 inserts a new definition and amends certain other definitions in regulation 3 of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2015. The effect of these amendments is that an additional sum is added to a beneficiary’s accrued pension rights, equivalent to the figure that would have been added if the December figures had been used, by applying a corrected percentage. It also makes a corresponding change to the valuation of the accrued pension where the member is transferring to certain other public sector pension schemes (club transfers).