The House of Commons Members' Fund Act 2016 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

, introduced under the

Ten Minute Rule The Ten Minute Rule, also known as Standing Order No. 23, is a procedure in the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the introduction of Private Member's Bills in addition to the 20 per session normally permissible. It is one of the ways in whi ...

by Sir

Paul Beresford Sir Alexander Paul Beresford (born 6 April 1946) is a British-New Zealand dentist and politician who has served as the British Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Mole Valley in Surrey since the 1997 general election. He was first ...

, to consolidate the provisions of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Members' Fund.

Background

The House of Commons Members' Fund (HCMF) was established in 1939, before a pension scheme was established in 1964, to help former Members and their dependants who had financial difficulty.

Provisions

The Act repealed the following Acts of Parliament: * House of Commons Members' Fund Act 1939 – (established the fund) *

House of Commons Members' Fund Act 1948 A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condit ...

– (extended assistance to widowers) *

House of Commons Members' Fund Act 1957 A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condit ...

– (created Treasury contributions to the fund) *

House of Commons Members' Fund Act 1962 A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condit ...

* House of Commons Members' Fund and Parliamentary Pensions Act 1981 – (created

pensions A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

for certain former members) * Parliamentary Pensions etc. Act 1984 (section 12) *

Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

(section 7) The Act empowers trustees to cease requiring contributions from Members (which was previously £2 per member per month) and to return surplus funds to

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

. It also extend the class of beneficiaries to assist all dependants of former

Members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

who experience severe hardship. It would also allow one of the trustees to be a former MP.

References

{{Reflist Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning the House of Commons United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2016 2016 in British law