Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the accrual of debt to their pension by divorcing service personnel due to the application of the current actuarial rules on Pension Sharing Orders.

The legislative basis for Pension Sharing Orders (PSOs) was borne out of the Welfare Reform and Pension Act 1999, which contained provision for the making of PSOs for couples divorcing after 1 December 2000. The legislation is owned by the Department for Work and Pensions and, where a PSO is awarded in respect of a serving or former member of the Armed Forces, the relevant pension scheme is obliged to comply with the provisions of the Act. The rules on PSO’s are applied to all public sector pension schemes in the same manner as stipulated by the primary legislation.