Pensions guide

15 June 2011 Last updated at 09:14 GMT The UK's public sector pension schemes have 12 million active, deferred and pensioner members Hundreds of thousands of workers in the public sector are threatening to go on strike in opposition to the government's plans to cut the value of their pension schemes.

The coalition government says the rising cost of paying for the pensions of the UK's public sector employees is a big problem that must be deal with.

An independent commission led by Lord Hutton, the former Labour work and pensions secretary, has outlined proposals for the government to consider.

They include higher staff contributions, retiring later and moving staff from their existing final-salary schemes to cheaper, career average schemes.

This guide offers some basic information on the biggest schemes, outlining how much they cost to fund and the main benefits they offer to their members.

They are, in order of size:

• the local government scheme for England and Wales

• the NHS scheme for England and Wales

• the teachers' scheme for England and Wales

• the civil service scheme

• the armed forces scheme

• the police scheme for England and Wales

• the universities' scheme

• and the firefighters' scheme for England and Wales.

Of these, the universities scheme is not included in the scope of Lord Hutton review.

In Scotland, the Scottish Public Pensions Agency oversees a number of public sector schemes, five of which provide similar benefits to their counterparts in England and Wales.

They are the NHS and teachers' pension schemes, and those for local government staff, firefighters and the police in Scotland.

In Northern Ireland there are separate but similar schemes for the civil service, health and personal social services, teachers, local government, police and firefighters.

Most of the schemes have undergone some significant changes in the past decade to reduce the cost to the employers.

The general trend has been to introduce a higher pension age, usually 65, but usually for new recruits.

In the civil service, new joiners are no longer offered a traditional final-salary scheme but a cheaper type of arrangement known as a career-average scheme.

View the original article here

Guide to the Scottish Parliament

A tour of the Scottish Parliament

The campaign for devolution in Scotland culminated in 1999, with the establishment of a Scottish Parliament.

In the three centuries since the Treaty of Union, discontent - to put it mildly - was expressed at being governed from London.

The Scotland Act of 1998 paved the way for the creation of a Scottish Parliament capable of passing laws affecting Scotland on a range of issues, known as devolved matters.

The powers given to the Parliament include the ability to raise or lower the basic rate of income tax by up to three pence in the pound - an option unused so far by Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).

Distinct

The Scottish Parliament scrutinises and monitors the devolved Scottish Government and makes laws for Scotland.

Although government ministers are drawn from the Parliament, the two institutions are legally separate and have their own distinct roles.

The Scottish Parliament's devolved powers are not supreme and ultimately are only granted at the discretion of the Westminster Parliament. Some areas remain the preserve of the UK Parliament - and Scotland remains part of the UK.

Nevertheless, decisions over vital areas like health, education and housing are now made in Scotland.

Devolution was intended to bring a new politics to Scotland.

By relocating decision-making closer to the people of Scotland, the aim was to increase access to the democratic process and as a result, raise the accountability of those elected to the Parliament.

Has devolution succeeded? That remains a matter of opinion - and the subject of fierce debate.

Even the Parliament building at Holyrood has proved controversial . It cost more than ?400m and was delivered three years late.

Scottish Liberal Democrats (5)

One of the Parliament's exterior walls bears 24 carved inscriptions , including one from Sir Walter Scott's Heart of Midlothian. It reads:

"When we had a king, and a chancellor, and parliament-men o' our ain, we could aye peeble them wi' stanes when they werena gude bairns."

Scott's words serve as a reminder to MSPs that they are firmly back in the heartland of Scotland, surrounded by their electorate, the people of Scotland.

Find out how and when you can visit the Scottish Parliament by going to its website.

The Scottish Parliament sat for the first time on 12 May 1999 and was opened officially opened on 1 July 1999Members of the Scottish Parliament are called MSPsThere are 129 MSPs, elected by mixed member proportional representationThe Parliament meets in full under the chairmanship of its Presiding Officer
The Scottish Parliament makes laws for Scotland and scrutinises and monitors the devolved Scottish Government73 MSPs are directly elected from single constituencies56 MSPs are elected from eight multi-member Scottish regional areasIt has the power to alter the basic rate of income tax by up to three pence

View the original article here

Guide to the Welsh Assembly

Introductory Video

On 18 September 1997, the people of Wales voted in a referendum on devolution.

They may have voted yes, but it was by the thinnest of margins - 50.3% to 49.7%. Nevertheless, a new dawn had broken, as the then-Welsh Secretary Ron Davies claimed.

Although wheels were set in motion for a National Assembly for Wales, those in favour had a huge task to convince those who had voted against it - and those who hadn't voted at all - that it would benefit the country.

With that challenge in mind, Mr Davies famously said that "devolution is a process, not an event."

Laws from scratch

That proved to be the case. The Government of Wales Act 1998 established the Assembly but it wasn't until a second act in 2006 that it gained the ability to make its own laws from scratch rather than adapting legislation created in Westminster.

However, the Assembly still had to ask MPs for permission to legislate in some areas, which led to bickering between Cardiff Bay and Westminster over the finer details of certain requests for the power to legislate.

Two areas that saw a tug-of-war along the M4 were the Welsh language and affordable housing.

The beginning of the fourth Assembly in May 2011 heralded a new legislative system in Wales.

In a referendum on 3 March 2011, voters in Wales decided that the Assembly have the power to pass laws on devolved issues without first having to ask Westminster.

The Assembly prides itself on avoiding the "yah-boo" politics of Westminster.

And although chamber sessions do get heated from time to time, the shouting and jeering associated with the House of Commons is kept to a minimum.

The Senedd , sited in the area formally known as Tiger Bay, plays home to the 60 AMs.

There are 60 Assembly Members, made up of 40 constituent AMs and 20 regional AMsPlenary sessions are held twice a week on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoonsSince the 2011 Assembly election, Labour has half the available seatsThe Senedd houses the debating chamber and committee rooms
There are 12 subject committees, on issues such as Enterprise and Learning, and SustainabilityThe Senedd was officially opened by the Queen on St David's Day in 2006There are five legislative committees that scrutinise new BillsThe Senedd building was designed by the architect Lord Richard Rogers

View the original article here

Guide to N.Ireland Assembly

Join BBC Northern Ireland political editor Mark Devenport at Stormont

If at first you don't succeed...try, try, try again.

Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement the folks on the Stormont hill have made several attempts to keep devolution on the political tracks.

Trains have always been used as an analogy for Northern Ireland's long drawn-out political process. In 1997, Tony Blair warned Sinn Fein that the "settlement train" was leaving and would not wait.

Former DUP leader Ian Paisley, now Lord Bannside, told his party members in 2005 that the "democracy train" was leaving, with or without them.

There have been delays, faulty signalling and many long halts leading to the restoration of devolution in May 2007.

The Assembly was suspended in February 2000 over the IRA's failure to decommission its weapons, and the issue of arms led to further suspensions of devolution up until October 2002, when allegations of an IRA spy-ring at Stormont again led to direct rule being imposed for a further four years.

D'Hondt's rules

Nascent power-sharing has been criticised for being heavy on debate and light on law-making, even by some of those Assembly members sitting on the chamber's blue benches.

The Assembly can legislate on all matters transferred to it from Westminster, which includes everything except defence, foreign policy, and raising taxes.

The executive, in effect the government of Northern Ireland, is made up of Assembly members using a mechanism created by a 19th Century Belgian lawyer, Victor D'Hondt for sharing out ministries between parties.

Like a box of Belgian chocolates, the largest parties get to choose the tastiest portfolios.

The executive is headed by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, which, incumbents of the deputy first minister's post have been keen to point out, is a joint office, with both ministers receiving equal standing and equal powers.

Both ministers have also been keen to be questioned less by the Assembly - every four weeks instead of fortnightly - but that move was derailed.

The devolution process has been a bumpy ride - from Tony Blair's "hand of history", to the refusal of DUP politicians to shake hands with their Sinn Fein partners in government.

Former SDLP Deputy Leader Seamus Mallon once famously described the Good Friday Agreement's power-sharing deal as the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement for slow learners.

BBC Democracy Live will allow you to decide if the Assembly train is whizzing by, or the slow coaches are being delayed by the wrong type of political leaves on the line.

The Assembly is Northern Ireland's Parliamentary debating chamberThere are 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly, known as MLAsAssembly proceedings are chaired by a Speaker elected on a cross-community basisThe present Assembly was established under the 1998 Good Friday AgreementA gold-plated chandelier which originally hung in Windsor Castle hangs inside Stormont
The Assembly Chamber was badly damaged by a fire in 1995The building was blacked out during World War II to avoid German air strikesThe Great Hall was used for the funeral service of footballer George BestThe executive meets in Stormont Castle within the Stormont estateThe Assembly also has a Senate chamber which is mostly used by committees

View the original article here