Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what consultations his Department has had with prison officers before raising their retirement age to 68.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Prior to 2007, the pension age within the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme was 60. In July 2007 Cabinet Office introduced a career average scheme for new entrants, which increased the normal pension age from 60 to 65. In designing the 2007 scheme, Cabinet Office did give consideration to the fact that the prison officer role was a physically demanding one, but they concluded that, as there were a number of other Civil Servants whose jobs were similarly demanding, that a lower pension age could not be justified compared to other scheme members. From 2015 the pension age in the Civil Service Pension Scheme was increased to reflect the State Penson Age of the member, after the recommendations made in the 2011 Hutton Report on the sustainability of public sector pensions.
We highly value our hardworking prison staff and offer access to medical professionals and an employee assistance programme to ensure continued physical and mental wellbeing. The pension age for Prison Officers is set under the Civil Service Pension Scheme, which is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office and consultation was undertaken by them.
I have met the Prison Officer’s Association for our introductory meeting at which a range of issues were raised, including pension age. I am meeting them in the new year to discuss this issue again.
Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the new edition of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, published in February 2021 and the Answer of 29 June 2021 to Question 19486, what legal advice was used to inform the information and guidance provided in Chapter 12 on Transgender People.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
No assessment of the effect of the Equal Treatment Bench Book is made by the Ministry of Justice. To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College, which also produces the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
Fair treatment is a fundamental principle embedded in the judicial oath and the Equal Treatment Bench Book is compiled by the judiciary to provide general guidelines for judicial office holders to apply as appropriate in any particular case. It is reviewed by a judicial editorial panel, with content from judicial experts and information from subject experts. The identities of the principal contributors appear in the Acknowledgments. The external documentary sources relied upon by the editors of the Bench Book are set out in full in the footnotes.