Retained EU Law (Revocation And Reform) Bill Receives Royal Assent – Retirement, Superannuation & Pensions

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 makes
provision for major changes to the content and operation of
retained EU law and to rules of priority and interpretation. These
changes will leave the meaning of some UK law (including Acts of
Parliament) uncertain until resolved by the courts under the new
rules.

Royal Assent was received on June 29, 2023, and while much of
the Act is now in force, many of the changes will not take place
until the end of 2023. The “sunset” provision in the
original Bill has been removed, under which certain EU-derived
legislation would have been automatically revoked at the end of
2023 unless explicitly saved. While no pensions law is due to be
revoked in this first wave, the Government intends to continue to
review the remaining EU-derived law to identify further
opportunities for reform.

However, the Act does remove the compulsion for Government
departments to implement EU case law that was decided before
December 30, 2020. This means that many EU pensions decisions will
be revoked unless Government specifically makes
“restating” regulations to retain them before the end of
2023.

Several EU decisions affect the levels of PPF compensation
available, although in a recent House of Lords debate, the
Government said that it intended to retain the Hampshire
judgment which provides that members should not receive less than
50 per cent of their accrued pension.

If restating regulations are not made in respect of the
Walker (equalisation of same-sex survivor benefits accrued
prior to 2005) and Allonby (GMP equalisation) and
Barber (retirement age equalisation) considerable
uncertainty will arise.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.