POLICE PENSION

R (McGinley) v Schilling; R (Metropolitan Police Authority) v Beck: [2005] EWCA Civ 567

CA: Pill and May LJJ: 29 April 2005

In two unrelated cases police officers retired on the ground of permanent disablement as a result of injury received in the execution of duty. In each case the police authority, in considering whether to grant an injury pension under the Police Pensions Regulations 1987, referred the question of the degree of the police officer's disablement to a selected medical practitioner under regulation H1(2)(d) of the Regulations. The medical practitioners found that the officers' degrees of disablement were 35% and 45% respectively and issued certificates to that effect. The officers appealed to medical referees under regulation H2(2). In the first case the medical referee dismissed the appeal, holding that as at the date of the medical practitioner's certificate the officer had been 35% disabled, and the officer sought judicial review of that decision. In the second case the medical referee allowed the appeal, holding that the officer was now 55% disabled, and the police authority sought judicial review. The judge, hearing the two judicial review claims together, held that the medical referee in the first case had erred in assessing the officer's degree of disablement as at the date of the medical practitioner's certificate rather than at the date of his own decision. He accordingly granted the claim in the first case and dismissed the claim in the second case.

The police authority appealed.

The Court of Appeal held:
An appeal to a medical referee under regulation H2 of the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 was a full reconsideration of the matter taking account of, but unconstrained by, the decision of the selected medical practitioner. The medical referee was required to determine the officer's degree of disablement as at the time at which he was making his determination, not the time of the medical practitioner's certificate. Accordingly, the judge's decision had been entirely correct.

The appeals were dismissed.

Appearances: Elizabeth Slade QC (Directorate of Legal Services, Metropolitan Police Authority) for the police authority; Martin Westgate (Russell Jones & Walker) for the police officers; the defendants did not appear and were not represented.