These Regulations may be cited as the Stakeholder Pension Schemes Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000.

Parts I to III and V shall come into operation on 1st October 2000 and Part IV shall come into operation on 8th October 2001.

In these Regulations—

• “the Act” means the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 19932;

• “the 1995 Order” means the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 19953;

• “the 1999 Act” means the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 19994;

• “the Order” means the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 19995;

• “the Taxes Act” means the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 19886;

• “the Authority” means the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority;

• “beneficiary”, in relation to a stakeholder pension scheme, means any person who has rights under the scheme which have arisen as a result of the death of a member of the scheme;

• “the Inland Revenue” means the Commissioners of Inland Revenue;

• “insurance company” means a company which is authorised under section 3 or 4 of the Insurance Companies Act 19827 (authorisation of insurance business);

• “investment trust” means a company that is approved for the purposes of section 842 of the Taxes Act8;

• “minimum contributions” means amounts paid by the Inland Revenue in accordance with section 399 (payment of minimum contributions to personal pension schemes);

• “minimum payments” means payments made to an occupational pension scheme in respect of a person’s employment by virtue of which (subject to there being in force a contracting-out certificate issued by the Inland Revenue in accordance with Chapter I of Part III of the Act) that employment is contracted-out employment by reference to the scheme under section 4(1)10 (meaning of “contracted-out employment” and “minimum payment”);

• “pension arrangement” means—

  1. a

     an annuity contract;

  2. b

     an insurance policy, or

  3. c

     a scheme or arrangement which is administered wholly or primarily outside the United Kingdom,

  which has effect, or is capable of having effect, so as to provide benefits on termination of employment or on death or retirement, to or in respect of earners;

• “property” includes land;

• “qualifying scheme” shall, in respect of an employer, include any stakeholder pension scheme which has at any time been designated by the employer under Article 5(2) (duty of employers to facilitate access to stakeholder pension schemes);

• “reporting accountant” has the meaning given by regulation 11(3);

• “securities” means investments falling within paragraphs 1 to 5 of Schedule 1 to the Financial Services Act 198611 (investments and investment business) but does not include shares in an investment trust;

• “tax relief” means amounts which may be deducted from contributions, retained by members and recovered from the Inland Revenue by a scheme administrator under section 639 of the Taxes Act (member’s contributions);

• “transfer payment” means a payment in respect of a person’s accrued rights under a pension scheme or pension arrangement made with a view to acquiring rights under another pension scheme or pension arrangement for that person, and

• “with-profits fund” means a fund, maintained by an insurance company in respect of a particular part of its long-term business for which—

  1. a

     separate accounting records are maintained by the insurance company in respect of all income and expenditure relating to that part of its business, and

  2. b

     the benefits payable in respect of policies allocated to that fund are determined partly by reference to a discretion exercisable by any person.

Articles 4 and 7 of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 198912 (associated and connected persons) apply for the purposes of regulations 4(3) and 11(4) as they apply for the purposes of that Order.

Subject to paragraphs (6) and (7), the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 195413 shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to an Act of the Assembly.

For the purposes of these Regulations, and notwithstanding section 39(2) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954, where a period of time is expressed to begin on, or to be reckoned from, a particular day, that day shall be included in the period.

Without prejudice to any other method of service authorised under section 24 of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954, the requirement to send any document under these Regulations may be met by sending it by ordinary post.

In these Regulations references to notice in writing include using electronic communications for sending a notice to an address notified by the member for that purpose.

For the purposes of these Regulations and Article 3(8) and (9) (which provide that stakeholder pension schemes must have tax-exemption or tax-approval and must not refuse to accept transfer payments except in so far as necessary to ensure that the scheme has such exemption or approval) “tax-exemption” and “tax-approval” mean tax-exemption and tax-approval under Chapter IV of Part XIV of the Taxes Act.