Consultations & legislation
Consultation on the Fair Deal policy: Treatment of pensions on compulsory transfer of staff from the public sector
Issued: 03 March 2011
Open date: 03 March 2011
Close date: 15 June 2011
Consultation on the Fair Deal policy in response to a recommendation made in the interim report of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission
The Government announced at Spending Review its intention to consult on the Fair Deal policy in response to a recommendation made in the interim report of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission. The Commission found that the Fair Deal policy, coupled with current public service pension structures, creates a barrier to the plurality of public service provision.
The Fair Deal policy requires provision of broadly comparable pensions where staff are compulsorily transferred from the public sector to a new non-public sector employer as set out in the documents at the bottom of this page.
The Fair Deal policy applies where a public service is outsourced to be delivered by an independent provider, including private sector businesses and non-profit making organisations such as charitable bodies and social enterprises. It requires that the new employer provides a broadly comparable pension scheme for the transferred staff and bulk transfer arrangements for those staff who wish to transfer their public service pension benefits.
The consultation document sets out details of the Fair Deal policy, objectives and a range of options for future policy and subsequent transfers. It seeks views on:
- whether there are other groups not identified who are affected by the consultation
- how the Fair Deal policy operates currently and whether this is relevant to future policy
- whether there are any other objectives that should be considered other than those identified in the consultation
- if there is a case for changing the current Fair Deal policy and if so what pension requirements should be
- proposals for future policy
- what approach should be taken for subsequent transfers of staff when previously transferred public services are re-tendered and for employees returning to the public sector having been transferred out in the past under the Fair Deal policy.
This consultation is aimed at public service unions, independent providers of public services (including private sector businesses and non-profit making organisations such as charitable bodies and social enterprises), representatives of public service pension scheme members, representative bodies for independent providers, academics, commentators on pensions and social policy, those individuals who consider that they may be affected by a review of the Fair Deal policy and any other interested parties.
The consultation and related documents are available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.
Contact details
fairdealconsultation@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk
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