Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Lord Bannside (Democratic Unionist Party). It was answered on Tuesday, 24 July 2007 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Grand Committee.

Reserve Police Officers

Question: But surely the Minister must agree that there seems, on the outside, to be a real manner of not caring for these people. After all, if they go for a pension, what they earned as part-time officers will not be taken into that consideration. That means that they have done a term risking their lives every moment of the day—the leader of the SDLP reminded us of that—yet they will get nothing as far as a pension is concerned.

Answer: May I begin my answer to the right hon. Gentleman by congratulating him on his recent award as Opposition politician of the year? He was voted as such by hon. Members from all parties. It is a unique achievement to be Opposition politician of the year and First Minister at the same time. I am sure that the Committee will want to congratulate him. The right hon. Gentleman again speaks with great passion and force about the value of the part-time reserve officers, their commitment, the role that they have played and the sacrifices that they have made— not least those who have given their lives. It is not that Ministers do not care about them: we deeply care about what they have done. As I have explained to the Committee, the stakeholder pension is now available for part-time reserve officers. Others will benefit from other pensions. The right hon. Gentleman put his finger on an important point. Because the payment received by some of these officers, who may not have worked that many hours in each week, might have been small, it might have cost them more to belong to an occupational scheme, because of the contributions that they would have to make, than they would have got out of it. We have gone into this in great detail. The fact that we are not prepared to accede to the questions and pressure that we are being put under is the result not of Ministers not caring, but of the practical problems are difficult, if not impossible, to resolve.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: NIGC c5-6
Session: 2006-07
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons Grand Committees
Subjects: Northern Ireland Police Pensions Part-time employment Police Service of Northern Ireland Reserve forces