Clause 11 - Special functions in relation to pensions etc.
Energy Bill [Lords]
8:55 am
Mr Stephen Timms (Minister of State (e-Commerce & Competitiveness), Department of Trade and Industry; East Ham, Labour)
The provision is in the Bill because of the position in which people who are currently in the public sector would find themselves if they transferred. For example, Treasury policy does not permit employees who leave the public sector to remain members of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority pension scheme and there has been a good deal of concern about that. UKAEA scheme members
transferred to the private sector for NDA purposes would be required to leave their scheme. In those circumstances, schedule 8 imposes a duty on the Secretary of State in the case of transfer schemes—and the NDA in the case of other types of transfer—to ensure that transferred employees are offered a pension scheme that is no less favourable when considered as a whole.