The Civil Partnership (Miscellaneous and Consequential Provisions) Order 2005

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends the Civil Partnership (Pensions and Benefit Payments) (Consequential, etc. Provisions) Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/2053) (“the Pensions and Benefits Order”), and certain provisions of Acts and secondary legislation, relating to pensions and benefit payments, and the protection of vulnerable adults, extending those provisions to cover civil partnerships.

Article 2 provides for an amendment to the extent provision in the Pensions and Benefits Order.

Article 3 introduces Schedule 1 to the Order.

Article 4 introduces Schedule 2 to the Order.

Paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 contains an amendment of section 62(1) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (c.4) to allow regulations to extend section 37 of the National Insurance Act 1965 (c.51) in order to provide that a surviving civil partner who attains pensionable age before 6th April 2010, may be entitled to graduated retirement benefit on the same conditions as a widower.

Paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 amends section 129 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 (c.48) to insert a reference to a civil partnership.

Paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 amends section 51 of the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993 (c.49) to extend the provisions in respect of widows and widowers in this section to surviving civil partners.

Paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 amends section 166 of the Pensions Act 1995 (c.26) which has the effect of disapplying the prohibitions on assignment of private pensions to third parties in a number of statutory provisions in the case of a pension earmarking or attachment order made by a court under the powers contained in Part 6 of Schedule 5 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (c.33).

Paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 amends section 80 of the Care Standards Act 2000 (c.14) which sets out a scheme for the protection of vulnerable adults. This amendment extends the same treatment to civil partners of vulnerable adults, to specified relatives of civil partners and to civil partners of their specified relatives, as currently extends to spouses of vulnerable adults, to specified relatives of spouses and to spouses of their specified relatives. It also provides that “civil partner” is to be read as including former civil partners, and those living together as if they were civil partners.

Schedule 2 amends the Occupational Pension Schemes (Contracting-out) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 and the Personal Pension Schemes (Appropriate Schemes) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 to extend the provisions to civil partners and surviving civil partners.

An assessment of the impact on business, charities or the voluntary sector of the provisions in this Order is included in the Regulatory Impact Assessment that accompanied the Civil Partnership Act 2004. A copy of that assessment has been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Copies may be obtained from the DTI website at www.dti.gov.uk/ria/index.htm#equality.