FOI/202500462587 · FOI · clarification
Police Pension Scheme Remedy Arrangements and Remedial Service Statements: FOI release
Information requested
You asked for the following information relating to the Scottish Government and SPPA responsibilities around the 2015 Remedy arrangements for police pension schemes:
1. Aside from the 100 RSS "test cases" referred to by SPPA in November 2024, how many actual RSSs were issued to Remedy pensioners by SPPA during the period between December 2024 and February 2025 inclusive?
2. Why were there so few RSSs issued in this time period given HMRC had supplied SPPA with all the necessary tax advice and SPPA has had since 2019 in effect to prepare for this duty?
3. Scottish Government and SPPA policy previously consistently stated pensioners in the most financial detriment would be prioritised in the RSS issue. Why did SPPA instead decide to change this policy and prioritise in March 2025 the issuing of RSSs for fully protected retired officers who were in the least financial detriment at the expense of those pensioners in the greatest financial detriment including IHR pensioners?
4. If HMRC Tax Guidance was not the reason for SPPA breaching the 31st March 2025 statutory deadline for RSS issue to thousands of pensioners then what was/were the reason(s)?
5. Did the Minister For Public Finance MSP Ivan McKee agree the prioritisation of Fully Protected pensioners in the ,March 2025 RSS issue?
6. What government budget held the funds to remedy the financial detriment of non-protected pensioners and was this funding in place for the 2024-2025 financial year or the 2025-206 financial year?
7. What is the projected RSS issue for both April 2025 and May 2025 given SPPA website claims to complete all but the very complex cases by this time?
8. What types of RSSs are unsuitable for automation and have to be processed manually due to their complexity?
Response
1. 0 RSS were issued between December 2024 and February 2025 inclusive.
2. The rules enabling the remedy came into force on 1 October 2023. The Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) were awaiting guidance on the operation of tax in relation to interest payments (Jan 2024-Sep 2024) and then for systems and processes to be updated to incorporate guidance issued by HMRC (Sep 2024-Mar 2025). Whilst the guidance was issued by HMRC in September there remained several unanswered technical questions which meant that SPPA did not have sufficient assurance to re commence production of RSS until March 2025.
3. Those in detriment are still prioritised, however all cohorts are being dealt with concurrently given the position in relation to the deadlines. Many ill-health cases require third party information which means these cannot be remedied until all relevant information is available to administrators and involve complex calculations.
4. SPPA invoked clause 29/10b, enabling us to extend the deadlines due to the issues encountered, which included clarification around HMRC tax rules and subsequent application of complex calculations requiring updates to systems.
5. The SPPA were not required to seek prioritisation agreement from Mr McKee.
6. Budget responsibility does not rest with SPPA. Police Scotland are the budget holders for all Remedy payments relating to the Police Pension Scheme.
7. The delivery timelines that the SPPA are working to are published on our member website, projected numbers are not known: Police Remedy: I'm retired | SPPA
8. There are a number of cohorts that cannot be fully processed by automation, however these cannot always be determined in advance.
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