Scottish Police and Fire Pensions Need Treasury Consent
If statutory instruments are not part of your daily reading, you are in good company. This one is short, but it changes who must sign off parts of pension rule-making for Scottish police officers and fire and rescue workers. The Public Service Pensions Act 2013 (Amendment of Section 3) Order 2026 was made on 9 June 2026, laid before Parliament on 10 June 2026, and comes into force on 1 July 2026. **What this means:** from 1 July, some pension scheme regulations made by Scottish Ministers for these groups will no longer sit inside an exemption from HM Treasury consent. Treasury approval will be needed before those regulations are made.
According to the legislation text, this is not a new pension scheme and it does not rewrite the whole Public Service Pensions Act 2013. It is a statutory instrument, which is a form of secondary legislation. In plain English, that means ministers are using a power already granted by Parliament to adjust how an existing Act works. That distinction matters because readers often see legal change and assume pension benefits, retirement age or contribution levels have already shifted. Here, the change is narrower. The Order alters the approval process around scheme regulations, not the pension promises themselves.
Section 3(5) of the 2013 Act says certain scheme regulations need HM Treasury consent. Section 3(6) then lists cases that are exempt from that rule. This Order amends section 3(6)(a) by removing the exemption wording that covered fire and rescue workers and members of a police force. The explanatory note does the most helpful translation. It says the practical effect is to remove, from the exempt category, scheme regulations made by Scottish Ministers for fire and rescue workers and members of the police force. So the legal change is only a few words long, but the administrative effect is clear: an exemption disappears.
Treasury consent does not mean the Treasury runs Scottish police or fire pensions day to day. It means there is now an extra approval step before certain regulations can be made. If you are trying to understand pension governance, that is the key point: this is about who must agree before rules are finalised. **Why it matters:** pension law is not only about how much people get when they retire. It is also about who has the authority to change scheme rules, how power is shared between governments, and what checks sit in the process. A short Order can still shift that balance.
One line in the Order says it extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. That can look confusing when the explanatory note focuses on Scottish Ministers. The simplest way to read it is this: the legal instrument sits within a UK-wide statutory framework, but the effect identified by the government is aimed at Scottish police and fire pension regulations. That is why this matters as a devolution story as well as a pensions story. Police and fire services in Scotland are devolved, yet the rules around pension governance can still involve Westminster legislation and Treasury consent. For readers learning how the UK state works, this is a clear example of shared authority in practice.
The explanatory note also says no full impact assessment has been produced because no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. That tells us ministers see this as a governance adjustment rather than a measure expected to cause wide operational or financial disruption. It is also worth being precise about what the Order does not say. It does not, on its face, change pension accrual, contribution rates, retirement age or benefit formulas for police officers or fire and rescue workers. If future regulations do that, they would be separate legal steps. This Order changes the consent route those future regulations may need to follow.
The Order was signed on 9 June 2026 by Stephen Morgan and Christian Wakeford, acting as two of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury. Its legal basis is section 3(7) of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, a power added by the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022. So if you want the shortest possible summary, here it is. From 1 July 2026, Scottish Ministers' pension regulations for police and fire schemes are no longer in the exempt category identified in section 3(6), and Treasury consent will be needed where section 3(5) applies. For anyone learning how pension law actually works, that is the small but important shift to watch.