Government Response: The Firefighters’ Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2024

Merit Scrutiny point 1: 

Regulation 3 amends the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (Wales) Regulations 2015 to correct an issue with the valuation of accrued pension rights for 2021 and 2022. It has retrospective effect as this was unavoidable to correct an error made by HM Treasury.

The retrospective effect is permitted by section 3(3)(b) of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013. Both the Explanatory Note and the Explanatory Memorandum address this.

Regulation 4 amends the Firefighters’ Pensions (Remediable Service) (Wales) Regulations 2023 (“the 2023 Regulations”).  Regulation 4 contains minor drafting corrections and clarifications to the 2023 Regulations. The Welsh Government notes that whilst the Explanatory Note states that regulation 4 also has retrospective effect, the Explanatory Memorandum does not address the issue. This was an oversight, and we are grateful to the Committee for drawing this to our attention.