Police Injury Pensions

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Dear Hertfordshire Constabulary,

I am making a request for information concerning the administration of police injury pensions.

When an injury pension is first granted (under Article 11 of the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006), or when an injury pension is reviewed (under Article 37-(1) of the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006) a Selected Medical Practitioner (SMP) is required to decide the degree of disablement, or any alteration in degree of disablement, as appropriate.

The Regulations do not set out the method the SMP should use. However, the Home Office provided guidance in Part 5 of Guidance On Medical Appeals Under The Police Pensions Regulations 1987 And The Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006.

That guidance states, in Paragraph 9, 'The Regulations do not set out a specified procedure for assessing the degree of a person's disablement. The Administrative Court has, however, commented that the task in assessing earning capacity is to assess what the person is capable of doing and thus capable of earning. It is not a labour market assessment of whether somebody would actually pay that person to do what he or she is capable of doing, whether or not in competition with other workers. What follows here is the procedure suggested by the Home Office. This has no binding authority but it is the procedure which has been followed in most forces and by boards over recent years.'

I am requesting any documents that record whether or not your force SMP has at any time followed the procedure that is set out in the guidance.

If there are multiple documents, then, in order to keep this request as simple as possible, you may provide a list allowing ready identification of those documents together with a 'Yes' or 'No' answer to the question, 'Did your force SMP at any time follow the procedure set out in the Home Office Guidance On Medical Appeals Under The Police Pensions Regulations 1987 And The Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006?'

If the answer is yes, or if you provide a document or documents that indicate the answer would be yes, then will you also inform me when this procedure was first brought into operation.

Yours faithfully,

John Jarman

Hertfordshire Constabulary

Good afternoon Mr Jarman

I am writing to advise a delay in the response to your request that was due today.
The member of staff dealing with your enquiry has returned from annual leave and has advised that they are hoping to forward a reply next week.

Kind Regards

Alice Duarte

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John Jarman left an annotation ()

Anyone who has an interest in, or a concern with, the maladministration of injury pensions by some forces and police authorities can find further information via these links:

PIPIN – a web site for disabled former officers
http://www.pipin.org.uk/

SCRIBD – a collection of documents relating to police injury pensions, including results of research conducted via Freedom of Information Act requests
http://www.scribd.com/wdtk

Pension.pen.io – a web site containing practical advice for former officers on injury pensions
http://www.injurypension.pen.io/

An article on Home Office Circular 46/2004 can be seen on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Office...

Dear Hertfordshire Constabulary,

A response to my request for information is now long overdue. This is a breach of the Freedom of Information Act.

You may have overlooked this request, so I am now asking that you confirm you are intending to provide a response and that you give me a date by which you will do so.

Yours faithfully,

John Jarman

Hertfordshire Constabulary

Good morning Mr Jarman

Your request has not been overlooked and is in a batch of requests that I am still awaiting replies for. I was not in the office last week and so today have again prompted the Human Resources Department and advised the urgency of a reply.

Kind Regards

Alice Duarte 7591
Information Compliance Administrator
Information Governance
Hertfordshire Constabulary
Tel:  01438 75 7745

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Hertfordshire Constabulary

1 Attachment

Attention Mr Jarman,

 

Further to your recent FOI request, please find attached a response
letter.

 

 

Information Services Office
Information Management Unit
Hertfordshire Constabulary
Tel:  01438 757745

Fax: 01438 757419

 

 

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This e-mail is subject to our Legal Notice which you can view here
[1]Hertfordshire Constabulary's Legal Notice

References

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1. http://www.herts.police.uk/hertfordshire...