Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made a comparative assessment of the survivor pension rules in the Police Pension Scheme 1987 in England and Wales and the equivalent rules applying to (a) police officers in Scotland and Northern Ireland and (b) the Armed Forces Pension Scheme.

The 1987 police pension scheme is now a closed scheme, superseded by the 2015 scheme, and there are no plans to make further improvements to the benefits accrued under it. From 1 April 2015, the 1987 police pension scheme was amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers who have died as a result of an injury on duty to receive their survivor benefits for life regardless of remarriage, civil partnership or cohabitation.

Policing is a devolved matter in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. Decisions of the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive should not form a precedent without due consideration of the government’s continuing duty to ensure that public services are affordable, sustainable and fair in England and Wales.

In 2015, a justification was made under the previous government for allowing all surviving partners of Armed Forces pension scheme members to retain their survivor’s pension for life, relating to the combination of factors that apply specifically to members of the Armed Forces and their families.