Legal Background

On-call firefighters in England brought proceedings (in what has become known as the Matthews case) relating in part to their exclusion from the 1992 Firefighters’ Pension Scheme, which was then provided solely to full-time firefighters. As a result of the Matthews case, on-call firefighters were allowed to join the 2006 Firefighters’ Pension Scheme (“the 2006 Scheme”) from 6 April 2006.

(See Matthews v. Kent and Medway Towns Fire Authority [2006] ICR 365)

Following the Matthews case, the 2006 Scheme was amended to give eligible on-call firefighters, employed between 1 July 2000 and 5 April 2006 inclusive, retrospective access to the 2006 Scheme as “special members” (special firefighter members, special deferred members or special pensioner members).

Fire and Rescue Authorities in England (“FRAs”) then carried out an options exercise which opened on 1 April 2014 and closed on 30 September 2015 (“the first options exercise”), which was intended to allow existing and former on-call firefighters with service between 1 July 2000 and 5 April 2006 an opportunity to join the 2006 Scheme, as special members, subject to the payment of appropriate contributions in respect of their service during that period.

After the first options exercise closed, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled (in what has become known as the O’Brien case) on 7 November 2018, that a part-time fee-paid judge should have his pension backdated to include his service prior to 1 July 2000.

(See Case C-432/17 O’Brien v. Ministry of Justice ECLI:EU:C:2018:879)

Matthews 2nd Modified Exercise

The second options exercise will allow eligible retained firefighters to buy pension service as a special member of the FPS 2006, backdated to the start date of their employment who fall within one or both of the following categories:

• Employed on any date between 7 April 2000 and 30 June 2000 (inclusive);
• Employed on any date between 7 April 2000 and 30 June 2000 (inclusive) as well as on any date between 1 July 2000 and 5 April 2006 (inclusive).

Read further guidance available on the FPS Members website 

The exercise will run for a maximum period of 18 months (1 October 2023 to 31 March 2025).

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Progress Update

We are currently reviewing all the data from the first options exercise and have identified:

• Around 600 retained fire fighters are eligible for the second options exercise and have received notification letters by 31 December 2023.
• 272 on-call firefighters responded, 335 forms are still due to be received.
• Tracing agency ITM Ltd has been engaged to locate members with lost contact or with no response.
• The received data will be collated to start the calculations process using GAD calculator.

Letters requesting expressions of interest have been sent to individuals identified as being in scope for the exercise. If you have received a letter, we ask that you return your expression of interest without delay due to the timescales involved. If you do not wish to join the scheme, please return your expression of interest to confirm this so that we can record your decision.

If you have not received a letter and you think you should have, please complete an Expression of Interest Form, and return it to Nellie.Murray@northyorksfire.gov.uk. 

View the information guide mentioned on the form RDS-employee-information-guide-v1.1

If you know of other on-call firefighters who you think may be eligible, please encourage them to contact us.

Matthews Timeline

The indicative timetable for Matthews 2^nd Modified Exercise is as follows, however the only statutory deadline is 31 March 2025 and it is likely that the other dates will change during this period: –

Further guidance and useful information is available on the FPS Members website