The Pension Protection Fund (General and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006

PART 1 Preliminary

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Pension Protection Fund (General and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 and shall come into operation—

(a) in the case of this regulation and regulations 19, 20 and 23, on 1st April 2006, and

(b) in all other cases, on 6th April 2006.

(2) In these Regulations—

“the 2004 Act” means the Finance Act 2004(1);

“the Order” means the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005;

“appropriate personal pension scheme” means a personal pension scheme that is an appropriate scheme for the purposes of section 3(4) of the Pension Schemes Act(2) (issue of contracting-out and appropriate scheme certificates);

“base rate” means the rate for the time being quoted by the reference banks as applicable to sterling deposits or, where there is for the time being more than one such base rate, the rate which, when the base rate quoted at each bank is ranked in a descending sequence of four, is the first in the sequence;

“beneficiary” means a person entitled to PPF compensation;

“dependant” means—

(a)

a child of the family who is financially dependent on the person, and who is aged less than 18, or

(b)

a child of the family who is financially dependent on the person, who is aged less than 23 and who is either—

(i)

attending a qualifying course, or

(ii)

incapable of engaging in full time paid employment due to a condition that falls within the definition of a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995(3);

“family” means a person’s spouse, civil partner or relevant partner and any dependants;

“the FSMA” means the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000(4);

“lump sum compensation” means—

(a)

any lump sum compensation payments made in relation to a person, payable under the pension compensation provisions specified in Article 146(2) of the Order (the pension compensation provisions), or

(b)

any lump sum payments made in relation to a person, payable under Article 150 of the Order (duty to pay scheme benefits unpaid at assessment date etc.);

“normal minimum pension age” has the meaning given in section 279 of the 2004 Act (other definitions);

“normal pension age” has the meaning given in section 175 of the Pension Schemes Act (normal pension age);

“pension annuity” means an annuity that can—

(a)

only be purchased at, or after, normal minimum pension age;

(b)

be purchased before normal pension age where the scheme rules so provide in accordance with paragraph 22(4) of Schedule 36 of the 2004 Act(5) (pension schemes etc: transitional provisions and savings), or

(c)

be purchased after normal pension age where the scheme rules so provide;

“periodic compensation” means—

(a)

any periodic compensation payments made in relation to a person, payable under the pension compensation provisions specified in Article 146(2) of the Order, or

(b)

any periodic payments made in relation to a person, payable under Article 150 of the Order (duty to pay scheme benefits unpaid at assessment date etc.);

“PPF compensation” means any payments made under the pension compensation provisions as specified in Article 146(2) of the Order;

“qualifying course” means a full time educational or vocational course at a recognised educational establishment where in pursuit of that course, the time spent receiving instruction or tuition, undertaking supervised study, examination or practical work or taking part in any exercise, experiment or project for which provision is made in the curriculum of the course, exceeds 12 hours per week in normal term time, and shall include any gaps between the ending of one course and the commencement of another, where the person is enrolled on and commences the latter course;

“reference banks” means the four largest persons for the time being (by reference to gross assets)(6) who—

(a)

have permission under Part 4 of the FSMA (permission to carry on regulated activities) to accept deposits, and

(b)

are incorporated in the United Kingdom and carrying on there a regulated activity of accepting deposits, and quote a base rate applicable to sterling deposits;

“registered pension scheme” has the meaning given in section 150(2) of the 2004 Act (meaning of pension scheme);

“relevant partner” means a person of either sex who was not married to, or in a civil partnership with, the member—

(a)

who was living with the member as if that person and the member were husband and wife, or

(b)

in the case of two adults of the same sex, as if they were civil partners,

and, for the purposes of these Regulations, two adults of the same sex are to be regarded as living together as civil partners if they would have been regarded as living together as husband and wife were they instead two adults of opposite sex;

“stakeholder pension scheme” has the meaning given in Article 3 of the 1999 Order(7) (meaning of “stakeholder pension scheme”);

“trivial commutation lump sum” has the meaning given in paragraph 7 of Schedule 29 to the 2004 Act (trivial commutation lump sum).

(3) In paragraph (2), in the definition of “reference banks”, paragraph (b) must be read with—

(a) section 22 of the FSMA (the classes of activity and categories of investment);

(b) any relevant order under that section, and

(c) Schedule 2 to the FSMA (regulated activities).

(1)

2004 c. 12

(2)

1993 c. 49; section 3(4) was amended by paragraph 15 of Schedule 3 to the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (S.I. 1995/3213 (N.I. 22))

(3)

1995 c. 50

(4)

2000 c. 8

(5)

Paragraph 22(4) is amended by paragraph 54(5) of Schedule 10 to the Finance Act 2005 (c. 7)

(6)

Listings of banks and their gross assets are produced and published in publications such as “The Banker”. This information is also available on that publication’s websitewww.thebanker.com

(7)

S.I. 1999/3147 (N.I. 11); Article 3 was amended by Article 262 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005