In the spring of last year (March 2022), the FRSA, FBU, Home Office and the Local Government Association, agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as part of the agreement to conduct a second options exercise for eligible members to join or extend membership of the Firefighters Pension Scheme 2006 as Special members of the Scheme.  The key terms of that MoU have now been put into legislation called the Firefighters’ Pension Schemes (England) (Amendment) Order 2023 which came into force on 1 October 2023.

As part of the agreement, it is a requirement for the FRSA to write to Claimants (those who originally submitted a claim) within eight weeks of the commencement of the legislation (which provides the opportunity for a second options exercise to commence) notifying them of the following:

• that the FRSA considers that the legislation constitutes an effective remedy to their claims;
• that, now that the legislation has come into force, the FRSA will not provide further legal representation in respect of their claims other than support with enforcing entitlements under the legislation, including by way of reference to the Internal Disputes Resolution Procedure (IDRP) and subsequently the Pensions Ombudsman;
• inviting the individual to indicate their consent to the withdrawal of their claim in the Employment Tribunal by return slip or other suitable means.

Once the FRSA receives confirmation from the Claimant of their instruction to withdraw their complaint, we will then write to the Employment Tribunal to withdraw the claim or notify the Employment Tribunal that the FRSA will no longer represent the Claimant, if the Claimant does not agree that the second options exercise, provides a remedy to the claim.

What does that mean in plain English?

If you believe that you are in-scope/eligible to take part in the second options exercise, to join and extend your membership of the 2006 pension scheme as a Special member, to the date you first joined the fire service, and you lodged a complaint to the employment tribunal via the FRSA (previously the RFU), you will fall into the above category.

Resources

The FRSA has provided several resources that cover the background to the second options exercise and the eligibility criteria. If you are unclear on the detail, we strongly advise you to access these podcasts, information videos and/or our website.

If you still have unanswered questions, please contact FRSA Head Office via hq@frsa.org.uk

Our podcasts

Second Options Exercise Part One – Apple – Spotify

Second Options Exercise Part Two – Apple – Spotify

Our YouTube Channel

Second Options Exercise Part One

Second Options Exercise Part Two

Our website

October 2022

March 2022

Next Steps

In our view the second options exercise (the remedy), provides a solution to your complaint and therefore your complaint has been dealt with and needs to be formally withdrawn.

To do this, please send an email to remedy@frsa.org.uk with your full contact details and include the following text: