The Occupational Pension Schemes (Charges and Governance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015

Definition of “relevant scheme” N.I.

14.  In regulation 1 of the Administration Regulations (interpretation)—

(a) in paragraph (2) before the definition of “scheme year” insert—

““relevant scheme” means an occupational pension scheme which provides money purchase benefits other than—

(a)

an executive pension scheme;

(b)

a relevant small scheme;

(c)

a scheme that does not fall within paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014 M1 (description of schemes);

(d)

a public service pension scheme M2 which—

(i)

falls within regulation 4(2) of the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014 (limitations on application to certain public service pension schemes); or

(ii)

does not fall within regulation 4(2) of those Regulations but is a public service pension scheme within the meaning of the 2005 Order M3 ; or

(e)

a scheme which provides no money purchase benefits other than benefits which are attributable to additional voluntary contributions;”;

(b) after paragraph (2ZA) M4 insert—

“(2ZB) For the purposes of the definition of “relevant scheme”—

“executive pension scheme” means a scheme—

(a)

in relation to which a company is the only employer and the sole trustee; and

(b)

the members of which are either current or former directors of the company and include at least one-third of the current directors;

“relevant small scheme” means a scheme with fewer than 12 members, where—

(a)

all the members are trustees of the scheme and either—

(i)

the provisions of the scheme provide that 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 who is independent in relation to the scheme for the purposes of Article 23 M5 (power to appoint independent trustees), and is registered in the register maintained by the Authority M6 in accordance with regulations made under Article 23(4); or

(b)

all the members are directors of a company which is the sole trustee of the scheme and either—

(i)

the provisions of the scheme provide that any decision made by the company in its capacity as a trustee is made by the unanimous agreement of the directors who are members of the scheme; or

(ii)

one of the directors of the company is independent in relation to the scheme for the purposes of Article 23 and is registered in the register maintained by the Authority in accordance with regulations made under Article 23(4).”.

Marginal Citations

M1 S.R. 2014 No. 79

M2 See section 1 of the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993

M3 See the definition of “public service pension scheme” in Article 2 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 as inserted by paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 4 to the Public Service Pensions Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 (c. 2 (N.I.)). The definition of “the 2005 Order” was inserted by paragraph 5(2) of Schedule 3 to S.R. 2005 No. 568

M4 Paragraph (2ZA) is inserted by regulation 21(b) of these Regulations

M5 Article 23 was substituted by Article 32(3) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005

M6 The definition of “the Authority” in Article 121(1) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 was substituted by Article 6(2)(b) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005