Valerie Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to establish equality in pension provision for surviving spouses of police officers across the different countries of the UK.

Mike Penning

As policing is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and Scotland, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Scottish Government are responsible for the design and funding of police pensions in those parts of the United Kingdom.

On 18 January 2016, the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 were amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers in England and Wales who have died on duty and who qualified for a survivor pension after 1 April 2015 to continue to receive their survivors’ benefits for life. There are currently no plans to change this policy in England and Wales.