The Stakeholder Pension Schemes (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations are the second set of amendments to the Stakeholder Pension Schemes Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 (“the principal Regulations”). The principal Regulations are amended to do (among other things) the following—

• to provide that those who are not employees of the employer on the date of commencement of consultation do not have to be consulted; and to bring regulation 23 into operation from the same date (6th April 2001) as Article 5 (partially) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1999. Article 5 is being partially commenced earlier than 8th October 2001 to allow valid consultation and designation for the purposes of Article 5 prior to 8th October 2001; (amendments to regulations 1 and 23)

• to make different provision as to means of payment of contributions; (new regulations 3(5B) and 17(5))

• to include the provisions required by regulation 6 among the provisions which the trust instruments are not allowed to enable to be modified or disapplied; (amendment to regulation 4(4))

• to expand on the requirements relating to investments and investment options; and to clarify existing provisions; (amendments to regulation 10)

• to clarify that a reporting accountant must be appointed for a scheme established under a trust; to impose additional requirements for eligibility for appointment as the reporting accountant; to provide for what should happen if he is or becomes ineligible; to provide that a partnership can be a reporting accountant; to provide that time limits for appointment of a replacement reporting accountant are to be shortened in certain cases; (new regulations 11(10) and 12(8) and other amendments to regulation 11)

• to change the required content of the trustees' or manager’s annual declaration under regulation 12, and of the statements to be obtained from the reporting accountant; and to make related changes; (amendments to regulations 12 and 15)

• to provide for an additional ground of refusal of contributions; (new regulation 17(6))

• to allow different statement years under regulation 18 to be chosen for different persons; to revise the existing provisions as to the start date for a statement year. All statement year start dates already chosen will be overridden by the amendments to regulation 18. The earliest start date in all cases will be 6th April 2001. In some cases, the start date will automatically be 6th April 2001, in others, a fresh choice will have to be made (within new time limits); (amendments to regulation 18)

• to change and clarify what information is to be provided under regulation 18; (new regulation 18(5A) and (11) and amendments to regulation 18(5))

• in relation to the exemptions in regulation 22, to clarify how paragraphs (2) and (8) work in relation to each other; to except employees under 18 from paragraph (8); to clarify “arrangement” in paragraph (4)(a) (see new paragraph (4A)); to remove any overlap between paragraph (4)(a) and (b); to avoid contributions being regarded as not made in accordance with paragraph (3) merely because the employee makes contributions at a higher rate than the employer (the employer must make contributions at at least the rate specified in respect of contributions to be made by the employee, rather than at the actual rate at which the employee is paying); to require paragraph (2)(b) (among other things) to be satisfied for the paragraph (8) exemption to apply; to make paragraph (8) workable in cases where contributions made by the employer are subject to the condition that the employee make contributions to the same scheme at a specified rate; (new paragraphs (8)(b) to (8C))

• to prescribe additional exceptions to the definition of “relevant employees”; (amendments to regulation 23)

• to change and clarify provisions governing deductions of contributions from remuneration, including providing for additional grounds of non-compliance with requests as to such deductions; (amendments to regulations 24 and 25)

• to ensure that there remains a time limit for appointment of a replacement reporting accountant in relation to removal, resignation or death which occur prior to the amendment of regulation 11(8) (transitional provision).

As these Regulations, in so far as they are made under Part II of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, 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 does not apply by virtue of Article 117(2)(e) of that Order.