Clause 245 - Power to amend enactments relating to pensions
Civil Partnership Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr Alistair Carmichael (Shadow Minister (Northern Ireland), Northern Ireland Affairs; Orkney and Shetland, Liberal Democrat)
In moving this amendment, which stands in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Malcolm Bruce), I place on record my appreciation of the great progress that the
Government have made in respect of pension provisions in the Bill. At the end of consideration on Second Reading, the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, the hon. Member for Stirling (Mrs. McGuire), announced that same-sex couples in public service schemes would benefit from equal treatment with married couples or mixed-sexed couples in relation to the backdating of their entitlement to 1988. The Minister said that that did not require amendments to the Bill. On this occasion, I am happy simply to let the Government honour their word.
The amendments that stand in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Gordon relate to those people who become parties to civil partnerships and who are in receipt of income from a private scheme. It is a mopping-up exercise. It is accepted that 75 per cent. of the schemes that would be affected by the amendments—