Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 1985 (repealed)

[F1 36A Recovery of excessive pension contributions. S

(1) Where a debtor’s estate has been sequestrated and he—

(a) has rights under an approved pension arrangement, or

(b) has excluded rights under an unapproved pension arrangement,

the permanent trustee may apply to the court for an order under this section.

(2) If the court is satisfied—

(a) that the rights under the arrangement are to any extent, and whether directly or indirectly, the fruits of relevant contributions, and

(b) that the making of any of the relevant contributions (“the excessive contributions”) has unfairly prejudiced the debtor’s creditors,

the court may make such order as it thinks fit for restoring the position to what it would have been had the excessive contributions not been made.

(3) Subsection (4) applies where the court is satisfied that the value of the rights under the arrangement is, as a result of rights of the debtor under the arrangement or any other pension arrangement having at any time become subject to a debit under section 29(1)(a) of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 (debits giving effect to pension-sharing), less than it would otherwise have been.

(4) Where this subsection applies—

(a) any relevant contributions which were represented by the rights which became subject to the debit shall, for the purposes of subsection (2), be taken to be contributions of which the rights under the arrangement are the fruits, and

(b) where the relevant contributions represented by the rights under the arrangement (including those so represented by virtue of paragraph (a)) are not all excessive contributions, relevant contributions which are represented by the rights under the arrangement otherwise than by virtue of paragraph (a) shall be treated as excessive contributions before any which are so represented by virtue of that paragraph.

(5) In subsections (2) to (4) “relevant contributions” means contributions to the arrangement or any other pension arrangement—

(a) which the debtor has at any time made on his own behalf, or

(b) which have at any time been made on his behalf.

(6) The court shall, in determining whether it is satisfied under subsection (2)(b), consider in particular—

(a) whether any of the contributions were made for the purpose of putting assets beyond the reach of the debtor’s creditors or any of them, and

(b) whether the total amount of any contributions—

(i) made by or on behalf of the debtor to pension arrangements, and

(ii) represented (whether directly or indirectly) by rights under approved pension arrangements or excluded rights under unapproved pensions arrangements,

is an amount which is excessive in view of the debtor’s circumstances when those contributions were made.

(7) For the purposes of this section and sections 36B and 36C (“the recovery provisions”), rights of a debtor under an unapproved pension arrangement are excluded rights if they are rights which are excluded from his estate by virtue of regulations under section 12 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999.

(8) In the recovery provisions—

• “approved pension arrangement” has the same meaning as in section 11 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999;

• “unapproved pension arrangement” has the same meaning as in section 12 of that Act.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 36A-36C substituted (11.11.1999 for certain purposes and 6.4.2002 in so far as not already in force) by 1999 c. 30, ss. 16, 89(5)(a); S.I. 2002/153, art. 2(f)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 36A applied (with modifications) (4.4.2006) by The Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/1030), reg. 2(1), Sch. 1 Article 23 paras. 1-3 (subject to paras. 6, 9)