The Treasury used the mechanism to modify members’ benefits due to the cost of implementing ‘the McCloud remedy’, which addressed age discrimination in pensions (following Lord Chancellor v McCloud & Ors [2018] EWCA Civ 2844). The unions claimed this decision misconstrued PSPA 2013, breached legitimate expectation, indirectly discriminated against younger members and was therefore unlawful.
Dismissing the claim in Fire Brigades Union & Ors v HM Treasury [2023] EWHC 527 (Admin), however, Mr Justice Choudhury held the wording of PSPA 2013 was sufficiently wide and the purpose of the cost control mechanism was to control a cost such as McCloud. Moreover, while some members were disadvantaged, the dividing line was not their age but the nature of the McCloud remedy itself.
