On the go: The Ministry of Justice plans to lay regulations in early 2022 with amendments to the Fee-Paid Judicial Pension Scheme, in a move that will provide remedy to judges who are owed past pension contributions.
In its response to a consultation launched in March and published on Thursday, the MoJ stated that the amendments, resulting from several court cases, would come into force in April 2022, and that all retired fee-paid judges who are eligible for a revised pension will be contacted by then.
There are approximately 4,600 judges who have new, or incremental, claims for fee-paid pension scheme eligibility.
Pensions Expert reported in December 2019 that four judges saw the Supreme Court rule in favour of their appeal to reclaim a pension. These professionals — who had part-time and full-time salaried appointments — should not have been denied their pensions, even though they did not make a claim to an employment tribunal within three months of completing their part-time work.
Until the decision, known as the Miller case, judges who held both fee-paid and salaried appointments had time restrictions on when they could claim their pension rights.
This was the last of a series of three court cases, dating back to 2013, when part-time judges in fee-paid roles earned their right to a pension due to a decision from the Supreme Court.
The Fee-Paid Judicial Pension Scheme commenced in April 2017 as a result of the case, but its pension benefits only accrue for fee-paid judicial service on or after April 2000, the date by which the UK was required to transpose the Part-time Work Directive into domestic law.
In November 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down judgment in the case of O’Brien v Ministry of Justice, concluding that part-time work undertaken before the deadline for transposing the directive must be taken into account for the purposes of calculating a retirement pension.
Until the new legislation comes into force, fee-paid judges who consider they have a claim are invited to contact the department’s Judicial Claims Team providing records of their service pre-2000, if available.
As an interim measure, the MoJ has started making payments in lieu of pensions to retired judges and dependants in this cohort, including lump-sum arrears where appropriate.
