The government has launched a consultation on legislation designed to support the efficient functioning of the Judicial Pension Scheme, after it was made aware of some instances in which it has either not deducted, or deducted an incorrect amount of, members’ contributions.

The consultation is seeking views on the draft Judicial Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2026 from judicial office holders who are entitled to be a member of the Judicial Pension Scheme, particularly any member of FPJPS, JPS22 or JPS15.

According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the amendments are intended to increase the range of powers that the department has to collect pension contributions from members of the judicial pension schemes.

The changes were announced after MoJ was made aware of some instances in which it has either not deducted, or deducted an incorrect amount of, members’ contributions from salary or fees at the time these were paid to members, as required by the legislation.

In some cases, these missed contributions were recovered by other means, usually by lump sum payments that were proactively made by members, while in other cases, the contributions remain outstanding and therefore must be collected (backdated contributions).

The proposed amendments will increase the powers to collect (or to have collected) these payments, with retrospective effect.

The MoJ said that it is currently unclear at this stage exactly how many judicial records are affected by this issue, but work undertaken to date indicates that the issue is relatively limited in scope and is likely to affect fewer than 500 records across the three sections of the scheme involved.

Due to the differences in how the schemes are structured, different approaches are required between the schemes to achieve this aim, with the amendments covering three separate areas.

Respondents have until 25 November 2025 to provide feedback on the proposed legislation.

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