Social Security Pensions Act 1975

56 Modification of schemes to secure conformity

(1) If the Occupational Pensions Board determine under section 55 above that the rules of a scheme do not conform with the equal access requirements they shall, either at the time of issuing their determination or as soon thereafter as they think expedient—

(a) by order direct the trustees or managers of the scheme, or any such persons as are referred to in subsection (2)(b) of that section, to exercise such powers as they possess for modifying the scheme with a view to bringing it into conformity with those requirements (for which purpose the Board shall include in their order such directions as they think appropriate to indicate the modification appearing to them to be called for); or

(b) if there is no person with power to modify the scheme as required by the Board, by order authorise the trustees or managers, or other persons named in the order (who may in particular include such an employer as is specified in subsection (2)(c) of that section) to make that modification; or

(c) themselves by order modify the scheme with a view to achieving the purposes above-mentioned.

(2) The Board may exercise their powers under subsection (1) above from time to time in relation to any scheme in respect of which they have issued a determination under section 55 above, and may exercise the powers together or separately.

(3) Any modification of a scheme made in pursuance of an order of the Board under subsection (1)(b) or (c) above shall be as effective in law as if it had been made under powers conferred by or under the scheme; and such an order may be made and complied with in relation to a scheme—

(a) notwithstanding any enactment or rule of law, or any rule of the scheme, which would otherwise operate to prevent the modification being made ;

(b) without regard to any such enactment, rule of law or rule of the scheme as would otherwise require, or might otherwise be taken to require, the implementation of any procedure, or the obtaining of any consent, with a view to the making of the modification.

(4) An order of the Board under subsection (1)(a) above may require persons to exercise a power retrospectively (whether or not the power could otherwise be so exercised), and an order under subsection (1)(b) or (c) may operate retrospectively; and in this subsection " retrospectively" means with effect from a date before that on which the power is exercised or, as the case may be, the order is made, not being in either case a date earlier than the coming into operation of this section.

(5) In section 64(3) of the [1973 c. 38.] Social Security Act 1973 (which confers power to modify schemes for various purposes) after paragraph (d) there shall be inserted—

“(dd) to comply with the equal access requirements specified in section 53 of the Pensions Act but without prejudice to anything in section 56 of that Act,”.