UK Offence Report

Forfeiture of pension rights after conviction of employment-related offences

regulation 111(3) of The Local Government Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 1998

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

3 A relevant offence is an offence, committed in connection with an employment in which the person convicted is

a member, and because of which he has left that employment.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 111(3)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Local Government Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 1998.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
20 February 1998
In force from
1 April 1998
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations replace the provisions of the Local Government Superannuation (Scotland) Regulations 1987 (S.I. 1987/1850) and constitute the occupational pension scheme for persons engaged in local government employment in Scotland (other than teachers, policemen and firemen) who are active members of the Scheme (previously “pensionable employees”) on or after 1st April 1998. They also replace them in part for other (deferred or pensioner) members in accordance with the Local Government Pension Scheme (Transitional Provisions) (Scotland) Regulations 1998 (S.I. 1998/364). Except as so replaced the 1987 Regulations will continue to apply to deferred or pensioner members unless they become active members again. The main changes are as follows– the restrictions on eligibility for membership have been simplified to exclude only those who have access to another occupational pension scheme or are part-time firemen from membership; regulation 11 sets a standardised contribution rate of 6 per cent. for all new members, while regulation 13 protects the position of existing members currently paying contributions at the rate of 5 per cent.; regulation 14 gives employers a new discretion to reduce or waive a member’s contribution rate once 40 years of local government employment have been served; regulations 15, 23, 50 and Schedule 4 set out overriding Inland Revenue limits on contributions and benefits, in particular incorporating the requirements of the Finance (No. 2) Act 1987 and the Finance Act 1989; regulations 20 to 22 define final pay and make provision for protecting the value of a member’s pension following a change in the circumstances of employment; regulation 24 defines the normal retirement age for new members as 65 but protects the position of existing members who may retire between the ages of 60 and 65; regulation 30 gives members aged at least 50 the right to apply for early payment of scheme benefits (subject, in the case of members aged less than 60 to the consent of the employer); regulation 31 places the onus on a deferred member to elect to carry earlier periods of membership forward on rejoining the Scheme, enabling an election to be made at any time during the fresh spell of membership; regulation 37 provides for a grant on the death of active members of two years' pay; for pensioners there is a standardised death grant of five times the annual pension; regulations 39 to 42 set out the arrangements for spouse’s pensions which are payable for the life of the beneficiary; regulations 43 to 47 provide a simplified structure for the payment of children’s pensions; regulation 51 gives employers a new discretionary power to augment scheme membership by up to 6 2/3 years on the termination of a member’s employment; regulations 57 and 58 allow for the conversion of the retirement grant to pension or vice versa; regulations 59 to 65 set out a simplified structure for the payment of additional voluntary contributions and give the member the option to transfer the accumulated value of the contributions into additional scheme membership; regulations 66 to 71 allow employers to operate a shared-cost additional voluntary contributions scheme and give members the option to transfer the accumulated value of the contributions into additional scheme membership; regulation 77 gives administering authorities the power to set revised contribution rates for employers with immediate effect where the costs to the fund exceed the assumptions stated in the rates and adjustment certificate which would otherwise determine these rates; regulation 81 gives administering authorities the power to charge interest where an employing authority is more than one month overdue in making certain payments; regulations 109 and 110 give administering authorities the discretion to decide their own abatement policy; regulations 116 to 120 apply the provisions in the Pension Schemes Act 1993 about transfers of rights out of occupational pension schemes with a few modifications and enable an alternative basis to be used for bulk transfers out; regulations 121 to 127 set out a simplified procedure for transferring rights into the Scheme, operating on a cash equivalent transfer basis, and provide for adjustments between funds where internal transfers occur; regulation 136 gives employers the discretion to convert awards made under the Local Government (Discretionary Payments and Injury Benefits) (Scotland) Regulations 1998 into Scheme membership.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.62.

Basis
the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.62 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source