Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending police pensions to life-long payments in the event of an officer's death.

Since 6 April 2006, all new police officers have had lifelong survivor benefits as part of their occupational pension scheme benefits.

On 18 January 2016, the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 were amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers in England and Wales who have died on duty and who qualified for a survivor pension after 1 April 2015 to continue to receive their survivors’ benefits for life.

There are no plans to make any further changes to survivor benefits for police pension schemes.