The Occupational Pension Schemes (Deficiency on Winding Up, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Northern Ireland Statutory Rule 1996 No. 585 — creates 1 criminal offence.

1offences created

0recorded in force

0revoked

Made: 13 December 1996
In force from: Not determined
Extent: Not stated
Subject: Corporate, financial services, company law, employment, charity, electoral and tax

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.) — published with the instrument by the department that made it. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

These Regulations concern the treatment under Article 75 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (“the Order”) of a deficit in the assets of an occupational pension scheme as a debt owed by the employer to the trustees or managers of the scheme. Article 75 of the Order replaces section 140 of the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993, and these Regulations replace the Occupational Pension Schemes (Deficiency on Winding Up, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 (“the 1994 Regulations”). Regulation 1 deals with the citation and commencement. Generally, the Regulations take effect from 6th April 1997, although regulation 1 comes into operation on 19th December 1996 to provide for the application of regulation 6 as represents the intervening period. The Regulations do not apply where an employer became insolvent or, in the case of money purchase schemes, criminal loss occurred before 6th April 1997. They do not apply to any schemes that began to wind up before 19th December 1996. Regulation 2 describes the terms used in the Regulations and identifies 2 Actuarial Guidance Notes (GN 19 and GN 27) to be used in connection with the calculation of any debt. Regulations 3 to 6 apply to schemes which are not money purchase schemes. Regulation 3 provides for the calculation of liabilities and assets of schemes and that where a valuation reveals a deficit, the actuary should complete a certificate as set out in Schedule 1 to these Regulations. Regulation 4 modifies Article 75 of the Order for schemes with more than one employer. It modifies the time when a debt arises under that Article and requires the whole of any deficiency in the assets to be divided up amongst the employers. Where a scheme with more than one employer is divided up into separate sections, each section is to be treated as a separate scheme. Regulation 5 modifies Article 75 of the Order and these Regulations for schemes that have no active members so that former employers are treated as employers in certain circumstances. Regulation 6 modifies the application of Article 75 of the Order in respect of employers who ceased to participate in the scheme between 19th December 1996 and 6th April 1997. Regulations 7 to 9 apply Article 75 to money purchase schemes with modifications. Regulation 7 makes provision so that where any money purchase scheme has suffered a reduction in its assets through an offence prescribed for the purposes of Article 79(1)(c) of the Order and unallocated assets are insufficient to bear the loss, it is treated as a debt from the employer. Regulations 8 and 9 make a similar provision for money purchase schemes with more than one employer or no active members to that made by regulations 4 and 5. Regulation 10 provides that Article 75 of the Order shall not apply to certain schemes. Regulation 11 and Schedule 2 make special provision for schemes that have members in United Kingdom and non United Kingdom employment or have a partial government guarantee or schemes where all the benefits provided (other than death benefits) are money purchase benefits. Regulation 12 enables trustees of trust schemes to modify them so as to apportion deficit in a multi-employer scheme in different proportions from those which otherwise apply under the Regulations. Regulation 13 revokes the former Regulations in respect of cases covered by these Regulations and saves arrangements under regulation 4 of the 1994 Regulations. The Pensions (1995 Order) (Commencement No. 2) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 91 (C. 4)) provides for the coming into operation of Articles 68, 75 and 87 for the purpose only of authorising the making of regulations, on 6th April 1996, and Articles 116 and 166, in so far as it was not already in operation, on 6th April 1996. The Pensions (1995 Order) (Commencement No. 5) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 534 (C. 25)) provides for the coming into operation of Articles 115 and 122(2) to (4), in so far as not already in operation, on 19th November 1996. As these Regulations make in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in regulations made by the Secretary of State for Social Security in relation to Great Britain, the requirement for consultation under Article 117(1) of the Order does not apply by virtue of paragraph (2)(e) of that Article.

Offences created by this instrument

Money purchase schemes: deficiency in assets owing to fraud, etc regulation 7(2) · Status not determined · Mixed — some elements strict, some not

What Parliament said about it

Hansard was searched for this instrument by name and returned nothing. That is the ordinary outcome: an instrument laid under the negative procedure is usually never debated, and becomes law without a word said about it in either House.

How Parliament handled it

Parliament's Statutory Instruments service records procedure from May 2017 onwards, and this instrument predates it. That is a limit of the source, not a statement that nothing happened.

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