Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993

[F1 107A Monitoring of employers’ payments to personal pension schemes. N.I.

(1) This section applies where—

(a) an employee is a member of a personal pension scheme; and

(b) direct payment arrangements exist between the employee and his employer.

(2) In this section “direct payment arrangements” means arrangements under which contributions fall to be paid by or on behalf of the employer towards the scheme—

(a) on the employer’s own account (but in respect of the employee); or

(b) on behalf of the employee out of deductions from the employee’s earnings.

(3) The employer must secure that there is prepared, maintained and from time to time revised a record of the direct payment arrangements which complies with subsection (4).

(4) The record must—

(a) show the rates and due dates of contributions payable under the direct payment arrangements, and

(b) satisfy prescribed requirements.

(5) The employer must, within the prescribed period after the preparation or any revision of the record, send a copy of the record or (as the case may be) of the revised record to the trustees or managers of the scheme.

(6) Except in prescribed circumstances, the trustees or managers of the scheme must, where any contribution shown by the record to be payable under the direct payment arrangements has not been paid on or before its due date, give notice of that fact, within the prescribed period, to the Regulatory Authority and the employee.

(7) The trustees or managers of the scheme must before the end of prescribed intervals send the employee a statement setting out the amounts and dates of the payments made under the direct payment arrangements during a prescribed period.

(8) If—

(a) the employer fails to take all such steps as are reasonable to secure compliance with subsection (3) or (5), or

(b) a contribution payable under the direct payment arrangements is not paid to the trustees or managers of the scheme on or before its due date,

Article 10 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (power of the Regulatory Authority to impose civil penalties) applies to the employer.

(9) If subsection (6) or (7) is not complied with, Article 10 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 applies to any trustee or manager of the scheme who has failed to take all such steps as are reasonable to secure compliance.

(10) If—

(a) subsection (6) or (7) is not complied with, and

(b) the scheme—

(i) is established under a trust, and

(ii) is or has been registered under Article 4 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (stakeholder schemes),

Article 3 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (power of the Regulatory Authority to remove trustees) applies to any trustee of the scheme who has failed to take all such steps as are reasonable to secure compliance.

(11) A person shall not be required by virtue of subsection (8)(b) to pay a penalty under Article 10 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 in respect of a failure if in respect of that failure he has been—

(a) required to pay a penalty under that Article by virtue of Article 5(7) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (failures in respect of stakeholder pensions), or

(b) convicted of an offence under subsection (12).

(12) A person is guilty of an offence if he is knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the direct payment arrangements so far as they are arrangements for the payment by him or any other person of any such contribution towards the scheme as is mentioned in subsection (2)(b).

(13) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (12) is liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; and

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years or a fine or both.

(14) No prosecution shall be brought against the Crown for an offence under subsection (12), but that subsection applies to persons in the public service of the Crown as to other persons.

(15) In this section “due date”, in relation to a contribution payable under the direct payment arrangements, means—

(a) if the contribution falls to be paid on the employer’s own account, the latest day under the arrangements for paying it;

(b) if the contribution falls to be paid on behalf of the employee, the last day of a prescribed period.

(16) Regulations may provide for this section to apply with such modifications as may be prescribed in a case where—

(a) the direct payment arrangements give effect to a requirement arising under paragraph (5) of Article 5 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (deduction and payment of employee’s contributions to stakeholder scheme), and

(b) in accordance with regulations under that paragraph, that requirement is for the employer to pay contributions to a person prescribed by such regulations (instead of to the trustees or managers of the scheme).

(17) Nothing in this section shall be taken as varying the provisions of the direct payment arrangements or as affecting their enforceability.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss.107A, 107B inserted (1.12.1999 for certain purposes and otherwise 6.4.2001) by S.I. 1999/3147 (N.I. 11), arts. 1(5)(a), 10 (with transitional provisions in art. 75(1)); S.R. 2000/332, art. 2(1)