The Occupational Pension Schemes (Payments to Employers) Regulations 1996

Notice of proposal to distribute excess assets to the employer

7.—(1) For the purposes of section 76 of the 1995 Act (which sets out the requirements which must be satisfied before a power to distribute assets to the employer on a winding up may be exercised) the prescribed requirements as to notice referred to in subsection (3)(d) of that section are set out in paragraphs (2) to (5).

(2) Where the trustees or the employer propose to exercise a power such as is referred to in paragraph (1), the trustees or, as the case may be, the employer, must take all reasonable steps to ensure that each member is given two written notices of the proposal in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.

(3) The first notice must —

(a) inform the member as to —

(i) the trustees' estimate of the value of the assets remaining after the liabilities of the scheme have been fully discharged and the persons or class of person to whom, and in what proportions, it is proposed that they should be distributed; and

(ii) whether the requirements of section 76(3) of the 1995 Act are satisfied;

(b) invite the member, if he wishes, to make written representations in relation to the proposal to the trustees or, as the case may be, to the employer, before a specified date (which is not earlier than two months from the date on which the first notice is given);

(c) advise the member —

(i) that a second notice will be given to him if the trustees or the employer, as the case may be, intend to proceed with the proposal; and

(ii) that no excess assets may be distributed to the employer in accordance with the proposal until at least 3 months after the date on which the second notice is given.

(4) The second notice must be given after the date specified in accordance with paragraph (3)(b) and at least 3 months before the power is exercised. It must —

(a) contain the information referred to in paragraph (3)(a), including any modifications to the proposal;

(b) advise the member that he may make written representations to the Authority before a specified date (which is not earlier than 3 months from the date on which the second notice is given) if he considers that any of the requirements of section 76(3) of the 1995 Act are not satisfied.

(5) For the purposes of paragraph (2) —

(a) a notice shall be treated as having been given to a member if it has been sent to him by post either at the address at which he was last known to be living or, in the case of an active member, at an address at which he is known to be currently employed; and

(b) notices are not required to be given where a member has no known address or where correspondence sent to a member’s last known address has been returned.