The Health and Social Care Pension Schemes (Remediable Service) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023

The Public Service Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 (“the 2014 Act”) makes provision and confers powers to make further provision (in the form of “scheme regulations” as defined in chapter 2 of the 2014 Act), about the establishment of public service pension schemes. There are two Health and Social Care Pension Schemes: a scheme divided into two sections known as the 1995 Section, established by the Health and Social Services (Superannuation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995(S.R. 1995 No. 95) (“the 1995 Regulations”), and the 2008 Section, established by the Health and Social Care (Pension Scheme) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 (S.R. 2008 No. 256) (“the 2008 Regulations) (together “the legacy scheme”), and the scheme established by the Health and Social Care Pension Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 (S.R. 2015 No. 120) (“the 2015 scheme”). The Health and Social Care Pension Scheme (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) (S.R. No. 122) (“the 2015 Transitional Regulations”) provided for the treatment and payment of legacy scheme benefits to certain members of the 2015 scheme. Transitional protection of this kind provided when reformed public service pensions were introduced in 2015 was found to discriminate against public service pension scheme members on the basis of age.