Consultation outcome

Privacy notice

Updated 10 August 2023

Your personal information, supplied for the purposes of the consultation, will be held and processed by the Home Office. The Home Office is the controller of this information. This also includes when it is collected or processed by third parties on our behalf. The Home Office can be contacted in relation to the consultation using the address and email address below.

Firefighters Pension Team
Police Workforce and Professionalism Unit
Home Office
6th Floor, Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Email: Firepensionspublicservicepensionsremedy@homeoffice.gov.uk

Personal data we are collecting

We have asked respondents to the consultation to voluntarily provide the following information:

• capacity in which they are responding to this consultation exercise (for example, member of the public)
• service/organisation (if applicable)
• if they are a representative of a group, the name of the group and a summary of the people or organisations that they represent

Taken together, these data may enable a respondent to be identified. In addition, the way in which a person responds to this consultation will also impact the data we collect on them. If someone responds via email, we will have collected their email address.

If respondents provide the information we request, we will use this to understand if there are significant differences between types of respondents with regard to responses to the consultation questions. We may illustrate findings through quotes provided to the consultation. We will ensure these are anonymised and do not include any personally identifiable information, unless an organisation tells us they are content for their response to be made public.

Your opinions are also personal data. We have requested that all responses to the free text questions remove all personally identifiable information such as names, dates and locations. However, some respondents may still provide information which could identify them.

How and why the Home Office uses your information

The Home Office collects, processes and shares personal information to enable it to carry out its statutory and other functions.

The Home Office is only allowed to process your data where there is a lawful basis for doing so.

The Home Office may share your information with other organisations in the course of carrying out our functions, or to enable others to perform theirs.

The Home Office is undertaking a consultation on Public Service Pensions: Firefighters Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2023. These regulations remedy the discrimination that had taken place between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2022 (the retrospective remedy).

Questions for consultation

Question 1:

In and out of scope - Do the proposed amendments to scheme regulations clearly define which members of the Firefighter pension schemes meet the criteria to be eligible for the remedy? If no, please explain why?

Question 2:

DCU timing of RSS - Do you think the policy proposals about the timing of when a scheme member can request an RSS in anticipation of retirement strike the right balance between a suitable period to make a decision, proximity to retirement date and any administrative considerations?

Question 3:

Ill-health Retirement - Do you think the proposed arrangements for members that qualify for ill-health retirement during the remedy period (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2022) may cause any adverse impacts? If yes, please explain why?

Question 4:

Added pension - Do you think the policy proposals in relation to scheme members with added pension puts all eligible members in the same position? If no, please explain why?

Question 5:

Transfers - Do you think that the policy proposals that transfers that came into the 2015 reformed scheme will be held in the 2015 reformed scheme until the point of decision achieves the policy intention of preserving transfer rights? If no, please explain why?

Question 6:

Bereavement - Do the proposed amendments to scheme regulations achieve the policy intention of ensuring that the resulting ‘member representative’ can make an immediate choice or deferred choice in relation to the remedy period service of a deceased member? If no, please explain why?

Question 7:

Contingent decisions - Do you think that the proposals with regards to contingent decisions give members opportunities to revisit pension benefit decisions taken during the remedy period? If no, please explain why?

Question 8:

Are there any other areas which you think should be addressed in these regulations in order to ensure that all eligible members receive a choice of pension benefits at their point of retirement, for the period for which the discrimination existed (1 April 2015 - 31 March 2022) on 1 October 2023? If no, please explain why?

Question 9:

Are there any additional points not covered in this consultation paper that need to be considered as part of the proposed amendments to scheme regulations? If no, please explain why?

Question 10:

Do any of the proposed amendments unlawfully discriminate against a particular protected characteristic, fail to advance equality of opportunity between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, or fail to foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not? If no, please explain why?

We will examine and analyse responses sent by respondents to the consultation. This will involve identifying issues and themes in responses and coding them to understand which of these are significant across the responses. We will publish high-level analysis, including breakdowns by the data we collect and the organisations who have responded (if they agree for their response to be made public and associated with the organisation), in the government response to this consultation. This will help us and those reading the government response understand how views differ across different groups.

More information about the ways in which the Home Office may use your personal information, including the purposes for which we use it, the legal basis, and who your information may be shared with can be found in the personal information charter.

What we will not do

We will not publish email addresses, or any personal information inadvertently provided in the free text responses.

Data obtained in relation to the consultation via post or email will not be shared with other organisations or sent overseas.

Your personal data will not be used for any automated decision making.

Storing your information

Personal information obtained via email will be held on a secure government IT system for the purpose for which it is being processed and in line with departmental policy. More details of this policy can be found in the personal information charter.

Any personal information that may be obtained via post will be securely stored in a government building, in line with Home Office Security and Retention Policy.

Retention of personal data

We will not keep personal data longer than is necessary for the purpose for which they are being processed. Our need to retain the data will be reviewed and maintained in accordance with Home Office data retention policies. Any deletion of data will take place in accordance with Home Office data retention policies.

Requesting access to your personal data

Under UK GDPR you have the right to request access to the personal information the Home Office holds about you, to ask to restrict our use of your personal information, and to ask us to rectify your personal information. If you want to exercise these rights, please email us at:

Firepensionspublicservicepensionsremedy@homeoffice.gov.uk

Firefighters’ Retrospective Remedy Consultation
Police Workforce and Professionalism Unit
Home Office
6th Floor, Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

When you write to us you must provide the following:

• confirmation of your identity: a copy of your passport, full driving license or birth certificate (please do not send original documents)
• confirmation of name and address: a copy of your full driving license, a copy of a recent utility bill, bank or credit card statement, pension or child benefit book (or similar official document which shows your name and address)
• if you are writing on behalf of someone else, a signed declaration from the person you are acting for indicating that they have asked you to make an application on their behalf

If possible, you should also send

• any information that might help us in locating the information in which you are interested such as the date you submitted your response

Once we receive all the above information, the Home Office has one month within which to respond to your request. This may be extended by up to two months in complex cases.

Please note, however, posted and online consultation responses may not always be identifiable as personal data are provided only on a voluntary basis. Where a data access request for a posted or online response is received and is identifiable, this will be processed as any other request for access to personal data. Where the response is not identifiable you will receive a response stating this.

There may also be a number of legal or other official reasons why we need to continue to keep or use your data. More information on requesting access to your personal data can be found in the personal information charter.

Other rights

Because we are processing your personal data under the legal basis of legal obligation, you have the following rights:

1. to restrict the use of your personal information, or to ask to have your data corrected.
2. to contact the Home Office’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) if you have questions or concerns about how we are processing your personal data.

Reporting a concern

Email: dpo@homeoffice.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 7035 6999

Or write to:

Office of the DPO
Home Office
Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

When we process your information, we will comply with the law, including data protection legislation. Should you feel that your data is being processed in breach of data protection law or other legislation, you can report your concern to our Data Protection Officer using the contact details provided above, or contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at:

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45.
Fax: 01625 524510

You can also visit the Information Commissioner’s Office website.