The Civil Partnership (Judicial Pensions and Church Pensions, etc.) Order 2005
Parts 1 to 7 and 9 of this Order amend the Judicial Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 1951 (c. 20), the County Courts Act (Northern Ireland) 1959 (c. 25), the Resident Magistrates' Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 1960 (c. 2), the Judicial Pensions Act 1981 (c. 20) and the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993 (c. 8) (and associated primary and subordinate legislation) to make provision for the payment of pension benefits to surviving civil partners of holders of certain judicial offices and eligible children. The main changes are as follows—to provide that a civil partner of a judicial office holder will be entitled to the payment of a surviving civil partner’s pension should the judicial office holder die in service or in retirement;to provide that eligible children will be entitled to the payment of a children’s pension;to provide that a judicial office holder, who is a member of the scheme before 5th December 2005 and subsequently forms a civil partnership whilst in judicial office, may choose whether any period of service before the date this Order comes into force is to be considered for the purposes of calculating a civil partner’s pension;the Order sets out the arrangements for making payment from the office holder’s lump sum benefits (except in respect of members of a scheme constituted under the 1993 Act) or by way of making periodic contributions in respect of a surviving civil partner’s pension, and for making additional periodical payments to reflect a judicial office holder’s choice that service before 5th December 2005 is to be counted for the purposes of calculating any resultant surviving civil partner’s pension benefit;where a person ceased to hold judicial office before 5th December 2005 and they subsequently form a civil partnership there shall only be entitlement to a surviving civil partner’s guaranteed minimum pension calculated in accordance with the Pension Schemes Act 1993 or the Pensions Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993.