Civil Partnership (Contracted-out Occupational and Appropriate Personal Pension Schemes) (Surviving Civil Partners) Order 2005

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Civil Partnership (Contracted-out Occupational and Appropriate Personal Pension Schemes) (Surviving Civil Partners) Order 2005. The noble Lord said: In moving the Civil Partnership (Contracted-out Occupational and Appropriate Personal Pension Schemes) (Surviving Civil Partners) Order 2005, I shall also speak to the Civil Partnership (Pensions and Benefit Payments) (Consequential, etc. Provisions) Order   2005. These orders were laid before the House on 15 June and 29 June respectively. before I proceed further, I wish to state that these statutory instruments are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Noble Lords will recall that the Civil Partnership Act, which we debated at great length last year, provides for same-sex couples to gain legal recognition of their relationship by forming a civil partnership. The Act made a number of substantial amendments to primary legislation and we explained in detail how we would use the powers in the Act that would enable additional consequential provisions to be made. These orders invoke those powers and make amendments to primary and secondary legislation in matters relating to pensions and benefits. The changes are detailed, but are essentially technical. I turn first to the Civil Partnership (Contracted-out Occupational and Appropriate Personal Pension Schemes) (Surviving Civil Partners) Order 2005. This order amends the legislation relating to the requirement that occupational and personal pension schemes must comply with in order to contract out of the state second pension scheme. The amendments ensure that schemes make provision for benefits for surviving civil partners. Noble Lords will recall that when we debated at length the subject of when scheme members would accrue rights to survivor benefits for a civil partner the original intention was for rights to accrue from the implementation date of the civil partnership. However, to meet the Government’s objective of according to civil partners as many as possible of the rights and responsibilities afforded to married couples, on 12   October 2004, the Government announced that public service schemes would provide survivor benefits for civil partners based on members’ rights accrued from service since 6 April 1988. Following on from that, the Government announced on 26 October 2004 that schemes that contract out would be required to provide survivor benefits based on members’ contracted out rights accrued since 6 April 1988. This approach is in line with the provision for widows. This order also provides an element of transitional protection for some widows and widowers. This transitional protection provides that if a widow or widower of a scheme member who died before the implementation date subsequently forms a civil partnership, or lives with a member of the same sex as if they were civil partners, their survivor benefits will not be reduced or stopped. This is to avoid the potential loss of survivor benefits in circumstances that could not have been foreseen when those benefits came into payment. I now turn to the Civil Partnership (Pensions and Benefit Payments) (Consequential, etc. Provisions) Order 2005. Again, the amendments in this order are mainly technical in nature and follow the main policy of the Act. The amendments afford the same treatment to civil partners in respect of pensions and benefits as is currently provided for spouses. Where existing provisions treat widows and widowers differently, civil partners are treated in the same way as widowers. The order puts civil partners and bereaved civil partners on an equal footing with spouses and bereaved spouses in relation to state retirement pensions. To ensure that direct discrimination is avoided, male and female civil partners will have those rights that are currently available to husbands and widowers from the implementation date, and remaining rights in 2010, when they become available to married men and widowers. In summary, although these orders appear complex, they do no more than ensure that civil partners are afforded the same treatment as married couples in matters of pensions and state benefits. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Civil Partnership (Contracted-out Occupational and Appropriate Personal Pension Schemes) (Surviving Civil Partners) Order 2005.—(Lord Evans of Temple Guiting.)