The Insurance Accounts Directive (Miscellaneous Insurance Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Insurance Accounts Directive (Miscellaneous Insurance Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994, and shall come into operation on 16th December 1994.

Interpretation

2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(1) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

(2) In these Regulations—

“the 1986 Order” means the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986(2);

“director” includes, in the case of a body which is not a company, any corresponding officer of that body;

“industrial and provident society” means a registered society within the meaning given by section 101 of the Industrial and Provident Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969(3);

“qualifying body” shall be construed in accordance with paragraphs (3) and (4);

“statutory provision” has the meaning assigned to it by section l(f) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954;

and other expressions shall have the meanings ascribed to them by the 1986 Order.

(3) Subject to paragraph (4), a body incorporated in or formed under the law of Northern Ireland is a qualifying body for the purpose of these Regulations if it—

(a) is incorporated by or registered under any enactment or public general Act or Parliament;

(b) is required to be authorised under section 2 of the Insurance Companies Act 1982(4); and

(c) is not required by any statutory provision to prepare accounts under Part VIII of the 1986 Order (Accounts and audit).

(4) A body is not a qualifying body for the purposes of these Regulations if it—

(a) is excluded from the scope of Council Directive 73/239/EEC(5) by Article 3 of that Directive; or

(b) is referred to in Article 2(2) or (3) or 3 of Council Directive 79/267/EEC(6).

(5) Any reference in these Regulations to the accounts required by or prepared under regulation 3 is a reference to the annual accounts, the annual report and the auditors' report required by or prepared under paragraph (1) of that regulation.

Preparation of accounts by qualifying bodies

3.—(1) The directors of a qualifying body shall in respect of each financial year of the body—

(a) prepare the like annual accounts and annual report; and

(b) cause to be prepared such an auditors' report;

as would be required under the provisions mentioned in paragraph (3) if the body were an insurance company formed and registered under the 1986 Order.

(2) The accounts required by this regulation—

(a) shall be prepared within the period of 7 months beginning immediately after the end of the body’s financial year;

(b) shall state that they are prepared under this regulation: and

(c) shall comply with such of the requirements of the provisions mentioned in paragraph (3) as relate to the contents of accounts or reports subject, where the qualifying body is unincorporated, to any necessary modifications to take account of that fact.

(3) The provisions referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) are the following provisions of Part VIII of the 1986 Order that is to say—

(a) Articles 234 to 245(7) (Annual accounts and reports);

(b) Article 250B(8) (Delivery and publication of accounts in ECUs);

(c) Articles 263 and 263(9) (Banking and insurance companies and groups);

(d) Schedule 4A(10) (Form and content of group accounts), as modified by Part II of Schedule 9A(11) other than paragraphs 13(3) to (5), 14 and 15;

(e) Schedule 5(12) (Disclosure of information: related undertakings) other than paragraphs 4, 5, 10, 12, 18, 19 and 29;

(f) Schedule 6(13) (Disclosure of information: emoluments and other benefits of directors and others) other than paragraphs 2 to 6, 8 and 9;

(g) paragraph 6 of Schedule 7(14) (Matters to be included in directors' report); and

(h) Schedule 9A other than paragraphs 10, 56, 61, 63, 64, 65, 70(3)(b), 72(2), 73 and 74, and, in paragraph 2(2), the words from “but the following” to the end.

(4) For the purposes of those provisions as applied to accounts prepared under this regulation, these Regulations shall be regarded as part of the requirements of the 1986 Order.

(5) Part III of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1990 (Eligibility for appointment as auditors) shall apply to auditors appointed for the purposes of this regulation subject, where the body concerned is unincorporated, to any necessary modifications to take account of that fact.

(6) In this regulation “financial year”, in relation to a qualifying body,

(a) any period in respect of which a profit and loss account, or in the case of an industrial and provident society, an annual return, of the body is required to be made up by or in accordance with its constitution or by any statutory provision (whether that period is a year or not); or

(b) failing any such requirement, each period of 12 months beginning with 1st April.

Publication of accounts

4.—(1) A qualifying body shall—

(a) make available the latest account prepared under regulation 3 for inspection by any person, without charge and during business hours, at the body’s head office in Northern Ireland; and

(b) supply to any person upon request a copy of those accounts (or such part of those accounts as may be requested) at a price not exceeding the administrative cost of making the copy.

(2) In the case of industrial and provident societies which are qualifying bodies, the obligation in paragraph (1)(b) is subject to the provisions of section 48(6) of the Industrial and Provident Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969.

Penalties for non-compliance

5.—(1) If the directors of a qualifying body fail to comply with paragraph (1) of regulation 3 within the period referred to in paragraph (2) of that regulation every person who, immediately before the end of that period, was a director of the body is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £2,000.

(2) If accounts which are made available for inspection under regulation 4(1) do not comply with the requirements of regulation 3 every person who, at the time when the accounts were first made available for inspection, was a director of the qualifying body is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £2,000.

(3) If a qualifying body fails to comply with regulation 4( 1) the body and every person who, at the time when the failure takes place, is a director of the body is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £2,000.

(4) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this regulation to show that he took all reasonable steps for securing that the requirements in question would be complied with.

(5) The following provisions of the 1986 Order(15), that is to say—

(a) Article 679 (Summary proceedings),

(6) Article 680A (Offences by bodies corporate), and

(c) Article 680B (Criminal proceedings against unincorporated bodies),

shall apply to an offence under this regulation.

Industrial and provident societies

6.—(1) The Schedule shall have effect for the purpose of modifying the Industrial and Provident Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 in its application to industrial and provident societies which prepare accounts under the provisions of these Regulations.

(2) The Industrial and Provident Societies (Group Accounts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1969(16) shall not apply to industrial and provident societies which prepare accounts under the provisions of these Regulations.

Transitional provisions

7.—(1) The directors of a qualifying body need not to prepare accounts in accordance with regulation 3 with respect to a financial year of the body commencing before 23rd December 1994.

(2) Where advantage is taken of paragraph (1), regulation 4 shall not apply to the body.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Economic Development on

L.S.

A.L. Brown

Assistant Secretary

2nd November 1994.