UK Offence Report

Forfeiture of pension rights after conviction of employment-related offences

regulation 68(3) of Local Government Pension Scheme (Administration) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

3 A relevant offence is an offence, committed in connection with an employment in which the person convicted is

a member, and because of which he has left that employment.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 68(3)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Local Government Pension Scheme (Administration) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
25 February 2009
In force from
1 April 2009
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations set out provisions relating to the administration of the new Local Government Pension Scheme (“the Scheme”) which is to come into operation on 1 April 2009 and is constituted by these Regulations and the Local Government Pension Scheme (Benefits, Membership and Contributions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (“the Benefits Regulations”) and the Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009. The provisions in these Regulations supersede without modification most of those in the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 (as amended) that they replace. Reference is made where relevant to a nominated cohabiting partner as a category of dependant beneficiary in the Benefits Regulations. The other main changes are mentioned in the following description of the arrangement of these Regulations. The Regulations are divided into the following Parts— Part 1 deals with citation, commencement and interpretation; Part 2 sets out the rules relating to membership of the Scheme. Regulation 9 (joining the Scheme) does not require any person who is eligible to be a member of the Scheme to apply to be such, unless he is applying for membership on a date other than that on which he would otherwise automatically become a member; Part 3 deals with contributions. Regulation 19 (additional regular contributions) sets out the procedures, where a member chooses to pay additional contributions under regulation 14 (election in respect of additional pension) of the Benefits Regulations. Regulations 21 to 23 simplify and update provisions dealing with additional voluntary contributions and shared cost additional voluntary contributions; Part 4 deals with pension funds and employers’ payments. Regulation 39 (interest) provides that interest payable on overdue amounts is payable from the day after the amount is due, the only exception being any extra charge payable by an employing authority under regulation 35 (employer’s payment following resolution to increase membership or award additional pension) or regulation 36 (employer’s further payments); Part 5 deals with the payment of benefits; Part 6 deals with determination of questions and disputes. Regulation 50 (first instance decisions) requires the employing authority to decide what contribution rate a member must pay. This is consequential on regulation 3 of the Benefits Regulations, which provides that the contribution rate a member pays is based on his pensionable pay and a range of pay bands; Part 7 deals with policy statements and information; Part 8 deals with special adjustments; Part 9 deals with transfers; and Part 10 deals with pension sharing. A regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for these Regulations as it has no impact on the cost of businesses, charities or voluntary bodies and does not have a significant financial impact on any public bodies.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.62.

Basis
the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.62 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source