In 2015, the Government reformed public sector pensions, moving most public sector workers into new schemes. A court case (Lord Chancellor v McCloud and Others [2018] EWCA Civ 2844) was brought by various public sector workers, primarily a group of judges and a group of firefighters alleging discrimination based on the ‘transitional protections’ offered to them under the schemes. In December 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled in their favour, and remitted the matter to the Employment Tribunal to determine a remedy for specific claimants, whilst the Government worked to remedy the discrimination in the schemes.

Since then, the Government has committed to undertake a full public consultation to address the discrimination identified in the case. The economic secretary John Glen, in response to a parliamentary question, indicated that the government are currently in high-level discussions with employer and member representatives to identify specific concerns to inform the consultation. We do not yet have any indication on when the consultation will take place, however it seems likely in light of the importance of the decision that it will be sooner rather than later.

An interesting case, partially because it stemmed from an Employment Appeal Tribunal case, and partially because it has resulted in a consultation where the original consultation was not at particular issue, McCloud may be an outlier, but it is a rare occurrence when a case not about a consultation results in the emergence of a new consultation process.