Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with (a) the Northern Ireland Assembly and (b) the Scottish Government regarding reinstatement of pension rights for police widows and widowers.

The police pension schemes in Scotland and Northern Ireland are a matter for the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Assembly respectively.

Government has a general presumption against making this type of change to pensions and we do not consider that there are other workforces that are generally comparable to the UK Armed Forces. However, Ministers must be able to exercise discretion where there are compelling and clear arguments.

The special circumstances of our military personnel, including the level of risk that they face and the disruption to family life provide a unique set of circumstances, which are further bolstered by the Armed Forces Covenant. We believe these merit a move away, in the specific instance of the Armed Forces, from Government’s general presumption against making retrospective changes.