The Department of Justice makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 1(1) and (2)(b), 2(1) (as read with paragraph 2 of Schedule 2) and 3(1), (2)(a) (as read with paragraphs 2 and 9 of Schedule 3) and (c), and (3)(b) of the Public Service Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2014( ) (“the 2014 Act”) and sections 58(1) to (4), 67(2) and (3), 74(2) and 103(1) and (2) of the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022( ) (“PSPJOA 2022”).

In accordance with section 21 of the 2014 Act, the Department of Justice has consulted such persons or representatives of such persons as appear to the Department of Justice likely to be affected by these Regulations.

In accordance with section 3(5) of the 2014 Act, the Department of Justice has obtained the consent of the Department of Finance( ) before making these Regulations.

The Department of Justice has had regard to the matters referred to in section 5(4) of the 2014 Act.

To the extent required by section 62 of PSPJOA 2022, these Regulations are made in accordance with Treasury directions( ) made under that section.

In accordance with section 24(1)(c) of the 2014 Act, the Pension Board for the scheme of judicial office holders has stated that it considers these Regulations to be minor or wholly beneficial.

The Statutory Rule will amend the Judicial Pensions (Remediable Service Etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 (S.R. 2023 No. 107) (“the 2023 Regulations”). The Judicial Pensions Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 (“the 2015 Regulations”) created a new Northern Ireland Judicial Pension Scheme (NIJPS) for eligible devolved judicial office holders in Northern Ireland (tribunals judiciary) which came into effect on 1 April 2015 (“the 2015 Scheme”). The NIJPS has since been closed to further accruals from 1 April 2022 as a UK wide pension scheme for eligible members of the judiciary being set up as a result of the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 (“the 2022 Act”). The 2022 Act effected reforms to judicial pensions across the UK by providing remedies for the age discrimination (identified in McCloud v Ministry of Justice) which is present in all the 2015 judicial pension schemes in the UK, including the NIJPS. The Statutory Rule makes technical amendments to the 2023 Regulations.

The amending Regulations make changes to the wording of the 2023 Regulations to ensure the deliverability of the original policy intention for immediate detriment members (including litigants) and gap judges.

Judicial members in these categories are considered never to have left their legacy schemes. However, during the period they were unlawfully treated as being in the 2015 schemes, they may have made payments purporting to be to the 2015 scheme. These include transfers in from private pension schemes, added pension payments, and effective age payments, among others. These types of payments could not have been made to the legacy scheme, so the 2023 Regulations seek to provide a remedy in relation to those payments. This usually takes the form of either compensation or regularisation.

The amending Regulations make technical amendments to the 2023 Regulations to make it clear that these groups of judicial members never had membership in the 2015 scheme, and therefore no payments could have been received by the scheme. The amendments ensure that, despite that, DoJ are fully able to implement the remedy for these groups, through regularisation of those payments or by way of compensation, as provided for in the 2023 Regulations.

The Regulations will come into operation on 24th May 2024.

Copies of the Rule may be purchased from the Stationery Office at www.tsoshop.co.uk or by contacting TSO Customer Services on 0333 202 5070 or viewed online at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr.