The Occupational Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend two sets of regulations related to the Pensions Act 1995 pursuant to section 10 of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999, replacing section 49(8) of the 1995 Act with new subsections (8) to (13). Like the earlier section 49(8), these subsections are concerned with the regulation of payments by employers to occupational pension schemes. However, whereas previously an employer was liable to a criminal penalty if he breached the requirement that deductions from an employee’s earnings in respect of contributions to an occupational pension scheme be paid to the trustees or managers within a prescribed period, the substituted provisions give the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA) the power to impose a civil sanction for breach of that requirement. A person found guilty of the fraudulent evasion of the obligation to make timely payment, will though, remain liable to a criminal penalty.

Regulation 1 is concerned with citation and commencement.

Regulation 2 inserts a new regulation 16A in the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 providing for the period within which a deduction from earnings is to be paid to trustees or managers, laying down the time limits within which the trustees or managers must give notice of a breach of that requirement to OPRA and the member, and specifying the circumstances in which such notice need not be given. It also inserts in those Regulations a new regulation 21(4) which prevents the trustees or managers of a money purchase scheme from being subject to a double reporting requirement in respect of a breach of the obligation to make timely payment to schemes of any contributions deducted from a member’s earnings.

Regulation 3 amends the Occupational Pension Schemes (Minimum Funding Requirement and Actuarial Valuations) Regulations 1996 so as, similarly, to avoid the trustees or managers of a salary related scheme being subject to such a double reporting requirement.

These Regulations do not impose any costs on business.