Final Judgement - Sargeant

07/01/2020

On the 18th December 2019, the Court of Appeal determined in its judgment in Sargeant that the transitional provisions in the Firefighters' pension schemes resulted in direct age discrimination between:

a) those who were members of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (FPS) 1992 and were fully transitionally protected by remaining in that Scheme after 31st March 2015 as a result of being an active member under the 1992 Scheme on 31st March 2012;
b) those who were members of the FPS as at 31st March 2012 and were not treated as fully transitionally protected and moved to the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme 2015 after 31st March 2015.

In the light of this, the Tribunal in the Sargeant case gave an interim declaration that the claimants (who all fell in within category (b)) are entitled to be treated as if they had been given full transitional protection and had remained in their current scheme after 1st April 2015.

In order to find out more, please see Bulletin 27 on the Fire Pension Scheme regulations website.