Schedule 3 transitional Provisions and Savings Paragraph 3: Scheme membership
491.Paragraph 3 prevents a current (or any former) Presiding Officer and a current (or any former) First Minister participating in the scheme as an office-holder member on new rules day or thereafter. Such persons are all in receipt of or entitled to special pension arrangements under Part S of the 1999 scheme rules (one half of the salary payable in respect of the office when the person ceases to hold that office). Under the Act there is no such special provision for future Presiding Officers or First Ministers, who are instead treated as office-holders and allowed to join the scheme in terms of rule 22 of Schedule 1. This transitional provision prevents individuals from being entitled under both old and new arrangements.