As we all sang 'Auld Lang Syne' this New Year, the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 quietly took effect. None of us were thinking about it then, so let's take a moment now to understand what has happened to some important pensions laws.

The Act revokes certain categories of retained EU law, where it is not also the subject of domestic legislation.

Caselaw on the rights of same sex partners to full equal survivors' pensions (Walker) and on adequate pension protection (Hampshire and Hughes) could have ceased to apply but regulations now preserve them (though not the Bauer case on poverty protection).

Directly applicable EU legislation has ceased to apply. That includes Article 157, the EU equal pay provision interpreted in Barber, Coloroll, etc.. But don't panic! The same rights are also conferred by domestic legislation: the Equality Act 2010. With one possible exception…

The government interprets the Allonby case, concerning equal access to a statutory pension scheme, as also applying to guaranteed minimum pension equalisation (GMPE) claims.

The Equality Act requires GMPE claimants to identify an actual comparator; the Allonby EU law, if applicable to GMPE claims, allows a notional comparator.

Under a power to 'restate' EU law that would otherwise have ceased to apply, regulations now retain the role of a notional comparator in GMPE claims.

There is, however, an argument that Allonby never applied to GMPE in the way the government considers it did (untested in the courts) and that the purported 'restatement' is of debatable validity.

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