Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme: Amendments

Today I am laying an amendment to the principal civil service pension scheme under section 1 of the Superannuation Act 1972, which will come into force on 1 July 2026.

The primary focus of the amendments is to correct historical inequalities relating to the provision of adult survivor pensions in respect of same-sex marriages and civil partnerships. There are also additional technical changes to clarify the scheme rules and to align them with other relevant legislation.

As a result of the then Government’s response to two legal judgments—Walker v. Innospec and Goodwin v. the Secretary of State for Education—all public service pension schemes must provide pensions for surviving same-sex spouses and civil partners, as well as widowers of female scheme members, that are no less favourable than would be provided to the widow of a male member in similar circumstances. This change will only affect benefits in respect of service before 6 April 1988 as all other survivor benefit provision is fully equalised.

The implementation of these changes will not impact progress under the administration recovery plan, which has been agreed with Capita.

[HCWS151]