Government plans a rule change to strip more criminals of public sector pensions.
Labour rule change will strip people of pensions – and it could be made retrospective
Labour is plotting a plan to strip people from their pensions. The Labour Party plans a rule change to strip more criminals of public sector pensions.
The Labour Party government lawyers are working to prevent Wayne Couzens, the killer of Sarah Everard, from receiving his taxpayer-funded pension. The government wants to block killers from claiming pensions from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC).
Doug Mullen, of law firm Anthony Collins, added: “They wouldn’t do something just for Wayne Couzens, it would need to apply to others as well. Potentially they [the Government] could find themselves in this sort of situation again.
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“I think it’s the sort of offence where the public would expect forfeiture to apply and it’s relatively rare to make a law retrospective, but it’s not impossible.”
Andrew Campbell, of law firm Doyle Clayton, said any legislation would have to be “watertight” to avoid legal challenges.
He said: “The Government could extend legislation to cancel someone’s pension when they’re convicted of a serious crime and it was in the public interest to do so.
“For example, where payment of a publicly funded pension would offend the public conscience, as is unquestionably the case here.
“It would be important to set the bar for cancelling a pension at an appropriately high level, as inevitably there could be legal challenges brought to forfeiting a pension, such as on the grounds of judicial review of how this power was exercised.
“Care would need to be taken to ensure that the legislation was watertight and could only be used in the most serious and obvious cases, rather than, say, someone just losing their job on the grounds of gross misconduct.
“Particularly as this power would be introduced to be used in other cases in the future and not just for one individual.”
A DESNZ spokesman said: “We are absolutely determined that Wayne Couzens does not receive a Civil Nuclear Constabulary pension, and are actively working on a targeted and proportionate solution that would resolve this.”