The Firemen’s Pension Scheme Amendment (Scotland) Order 2004
This Order amends the Firemen’s Pension Scheme, as set out in Schedule 2 to the Firemen’s Pension Scheme Order 1992 (“the principal Order”), as it applies in Scotland. The amendments are set out in the Schedule to this Order. The main changes are as follows:to make provision for part-time regular firefighters to be treated the same as whole-time regular firefighters for the purposes of the Scheme, except that awards for part-time members will be reduced to take account of the fact that the member’s pensionable service will relate to a period of part-time service;to make provision for the counting as pensionable service periods during which a member is on maternity, paternity or adoption leave;to make provision for the making of optional pension contributions during the period in which a member is on maternity or adoption leave;to provide that when considering whether a disablement is permanent, the authority will consider whether the disablement will continue until the age at which the person would have otherwise retired;to amend the requirement to allocate a portion of pension to a beneficiary, so that the authority must be satisfied that the member has a normal life expectancy and to provide that a pension shall not be reduced by the allocated portion where the beneficiary has died;to reduce the period of pensionable service required to be entitled to a spouse’s ordinary pension and widow’s requisite benefit and temporary pension from 3 years to 2 years;to require a lump sum relating to a payment of periodical contributions for increased benefits to be paid within 3 months of the commencement of periodical contributions;to provide that when determining medical issues, the authority must obtain a binding written opinion from an independent qualified medical practitioner, who must certify that he is independent from the case; andto make changes to require an appellant, in certain circumstances, to pay the costs when he withdraws an appeal to the board of medical referees.