The Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Funding) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Exemptions - general N.I.

17.—(1) Part IV of the Order does not apply to—

(a) a scheme which—

(i) is established by, or under, a statutory provision, and

(ii) is guaranteed by a public authority;

(b) a pay-as-you-go scheme;

(c) a scheme which is established under section 48 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998(1) (pensions of members), or which was established under Part II of the Ministerial Salaries and Members' Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 1965(2) or Article 3 of the Assembly Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1976(3);

[F1 (d) a scheme which is treated as such by virtue of paragraph 4 or 5 of Schedule 2 and applies to members in employment outside the United Kingdom;]

(e) a scheme which—

(i) provides relevant benefits;

(ii) is neither a relevant statutory scheme nor a tax approved scheme, or, from 6th April 2006, is not a tax registered scheme, and

(iii) has fewer than 100 members;

(f) a section 615(6) scheme which has fewer than 100 members;

(g) a scheme which has fewer than two members;

(h) [F2 a scheme with] fewer than 12 members, where all the members are trustees of the scheme and either—

(i) the provisions of the scheme provide that [F3 any decision made by the trustees is] made by the unanimous agreement of the trustees who are members of the scheme, or

(ii) the scheme has a trustee [F4 who is independent] in relation to the scheme for the purposes of Article 23 of the 1995 Order(4) (power to appoint independent trustees) and is registered in the register maintained by the Regulator in accordance with regulations made under paragraph (4) of that Article;

(i) [F5 a scheme with] fewer than 12 members, [F6 where a company is the sole trustee] of the scheme and all the members of the scheme are directors of the company and either—

(i) the provisions of the scheme provide that any decision made by the company in its capacity as trustee [F7 is made by the unanimous agreement] of the directors who are members of the scheme, or

(ii) [F8 one of the directors of the company] is independent in relation to the scheme for the purposes of Article 23 of the 1995 Order and is registered in the register maintained by the Regulator in accordance with regulations made under paragraph (4) of that Article;

(j) a scheme under which the only benefits provided for (other than money purchase benefits) are death benefits, if the death benefits are secured by insurance policies or annuity contracts;

(k) a scheme which is the subject of a scheme failure notice under Article 106 or [F9 114]

(l) [F10 subject to paragraph (1A) and regulation 18] , a scheme which is being [F11 wound up, or] .

[F12 (m) a scheme or a section of a scheme which is a collective money purchase scheme for the purposes of Part 2 of the Pension Schemes Act 2021 (collective money purchase benefits: Northern Ireland).]

[F13 (1A) Article 210A (requirements for winding up procedure) applies to a scheme [F14 or a section of a scheme] where—

(a) a recovery plan has been prepared under Article 205, and

(b) the scheme begins to wind up during the recovery period.]

(2) In paragraph (1)—

“pay-as-you-go scheme” means an occupational pension scheme under which there is no requirement for assets to be set aside in advance for the purpose of providing benefits under the scheme (disregarding any requirements relating to additional voluntary contributions);

“public authority” means—

(a)

a Minister of the Crown (within the meaning of the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975(5));

(b)

a government department (including any body or authority exercising statutory functions on behalf of the Crown), or

(c)

a local authority;

“relevant benefits” has the meaning given in section 612(1) of the Taxes Act 1988(6) (interpretation) or, from 6th April 2006, section 393B of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003(7);

“relevant statutory scheme” has the meaning given in section 611A(1) of the Taxes Act 1988(8);

“section 615(6) scheme” means a scheme with such a superannuation fund as is mentioned in section 615(6) of the Taxes Act 1988(9) (funds for the provision of benefits in respect of employment outside the United Kingdom);

[F15 “a section of a scheme” means a section of a multi-employer scheme where a specified part or proportion of the assets of the scheme is attributable to that section and cannot be used for the purposes of any other section of the scheme;]

“a tax approved scheme” means a scheme which is approved or was formerly approved under section 590 or 591 of the Taxes Act 1988(10) (approval of retirement benefit schemes) or in respect of which an application for such approval has been duly made but has not been determined;

“a tax registered scheme” means a scheme which is, or is treated as, registered under Chapter 2 of Part 4 of the Finance Act 2004(11) (registration of pension schemes).

[F16 (2A) In paragraph (1A) “recovery period” means the period specified in the scheme’s recovery plan in accordance with Article 205(2)(b).]

(3) In paragraph (2), “local authority” has the meaning given by Article 2(2) of the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972(12).

(4) Where Part IV of the Order ceases to apply to a scheme to which it previously applied, because the scheme satisfies any of the criteria for exemption in paragraph (1), that does not affect any rights or obligations arising before that Part ceased to apply.

Textual Amendments

F1 Reg. 17(1)(d) substituted (31.12.2020) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Amendment etc.) (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/193), regs. 1, 24(3); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F2 Words in reg. 17(1)(h) substituted (6.4.2007) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007/185), regs. 1(1), 13(2)(a)(i)

F3 Words in reg. 17(1)(h)(i) substituted (6.4.2007) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007/185), regs. 1(1), 13(2)(a)(ii)

F4 Words in reg. 17(1)(h)(ii) substituted (6.4.2007) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007/185), regs. 1(1), 13(2)(a)(iii)

F5 Words in reg. 17(1)(i) substituted (6.4.2007) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007/185), regs. 1(1), 13(2)(b)(i)

F6 Words in reg. 17(1)(i) substituted (6.4.2007) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007/185), regs. 1(1), 13(2)(b)(ii)

F7 Words in reg. 17(1)(i) substituted (6.4.2007) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007/185), regs. 1(1), 13(2)(b)(iii)

F8 Words in reg. 17(1)(i)(ii) substituted (6.4.2007) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (S.R. 2007/185), regs. 1(1), 13(2)(b)(iv)

F9 Word in reg. 17(1)(k) substituted (1.8.2022) by The Occupational Pension Schemes (Collective Money Purchase Schemes) (Modifications and Consequential and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/192), regs. 1(1), 9(a)

F10 Words in reg. 17(l) substituted (24.7.2006) by The Occupational Pension Schemes (Winding up Procedure Requirement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R. 2006/297), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(a)

F11 Words in reg. 17(1)(l) substituted (1.8.2022) by The Occupational Pension Schemes (Collective Money Purchase Schemes) (Modifications and Consequential and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/192), regs. 1(1), 9(b)

F12 Reg. 17(1)(m) added (1.8.2022) by The Occupational Pension Schemes (Collective Money Purchase Schemes) (Modifications and Consequential and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/192), regs. 1(1), 9(c)

F13 Reg. 17(1A) inserted (24.7.2006) by The Occupational Pension Schemes (Winding up Procedure Requirement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R. 2006/297), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(b)

F14 Words in reg. 17(1)(l) inserted (6.4.2009) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (S.R. 2009/115), regs. 1(2), 16(2)(a)

F15 Words in reg. 17(2) inserted (6.4.2009) by The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (S.R. 2009/115), regs. 1(2), 16(2)(b)

F16 Reg. 17(2A) inserted (24.7.2006) by The Occupational Pension Schemes (Winding up Procedure Requirement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R. 2006/297), regs. 1(1), 5(3)(c)

Commencement Information

I1 Reg. 17 in operation at 30.12.2005, see reg. 1

(1)

1998 c. 47

(2)

1965 c. 18 (N.I.)

(3)

S.I. 1976/1779

(4)

Article 23 was substituted by Article 32(3) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/255 (N.I. 1))

(5)

1975 c. 26

(6)

The definition of “relevant benefits” was amended by paragraph 10(1) of Schedule 10 to the Finance Act 1999 (c. 16). Section 612(1) is repealed by Part 3 of Schedule 42 to the Finance Act 2004 (c. 12) with effect from 6th April 2006

(7)

2003 c. 1; section 393B is inserted by section 249(3) of the Finance Act 2004 with effect from 6th April 2006

(8)

Section 611A was inserted by paragraph 15 of Schedule 6 to the Finance Act 1989 (c. 26) and subsection (1) was substituted by paragraph 5 of Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 1999. The section is repealed by Part 3 of Schedule 42 to the Finance Act 2004 with effect from 6th April 2006

(9)

Section 615(6) was amended by paragraph 11 of Schedule 10 to the Finance Act 1999

(10)

Section 590 was amended by paragraph 3 of Schedule 6 to the Finance Act 1989

(11)

2004 c. 12

(12)

S.I. 1972/1073 (N.I. 10)