The Occupational Pension Schemes (Independent Trustee) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations make provision about the register of trustees and further provision about independent trustees.

Regulation 2 requires the Pensions Regulator to compile and maintain a register of persons who meet the conditions for being in the register. The register is referred to in these Regulations as the trustee register.

Regulation 3 sets out the conditions to be met to be eligible to be registered in the trustee register.

Regulation 4 prescribes the function of refusing to register a trustee in the trustee register as a regulatory function, for the purposes of Article 88(2) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 (“the 2005 Order”), and enables the Regulator to delegate this function to the Determinations Panel established under section 9 of the Pensions Act 2004 (c. 35).

Regulation 5 amends Schedule 2 to the 2005 Order by adding the function of removing a trustee from the trustee register to the list of reserved regulatory functions, that is, those functions which are exercisable only by the Determinations Panel.

Regulation 6 adds the function of removing trustees from the trustee register to the list of regulatory functions which are eligible to be carried out under the special procedure in cases of urgency.

Regulation 7 provides that an independent trustee’s appointment to a scheme and any actions taken during that appointment are not invalidated by his subsequent removal from the trustee register.

Regulation 8 sets out the information that must be included in a notice given under Article 22(2B) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (“the 1995 Order”).

Regulation 9 makes provision for copies of the trustee register to be provided to persons on request, and provides that a charge may be made to meet the costs of providing copies.

Regulations 10, 11 and 12 make certain modifications to Articles 22 to 26 of the 1995 Order, in respect of the application of those Articles to schemes in relation to which there is more than one employer, cases where the employer is a partnership, and schemes which have no members who are employees.

Regulation 13 requires an appointed trustee to notify certain persons of certain information in certain circumstances.

Regulation 14 makes consequential revocations.

Articles 22(2F) and 23(4) of the 1995 Order, some of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made, are inserted and substituted respectively by Article 32(2) and (3) of the 2005 Order. The Pensions (2005 Order) (Commencement No. 1 and Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Order (Northern Ireland) 2005 (S.R. 2005 No. 48 (C. 5)) provides for the coming into operation of Articles 7(5)(a), 88(2)(q) and 92(5)(u) of the 2005 Order, some of the other enabling provisions, and Article 32(2) and (3) of the 2005 Order, for the purpose only of authorising the making of regulations on 25th February 2005 and for all other purposes on 6th April 2005. The Pensions (2005 Order) (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provisions) Order (Northern Ireland) 2005 (S.R. 2005 No. 166 (C. 12)) provides for the coming into operation of paragraph 2(d) of Schedule 1 to the 2005 Order, another enabling provision, for the purpose only of authorising the making of regulations on 25th March 2005 and for all other purposes on 6th April 2005.

As these Regulations make, in so far as they are made under Part II of the 1995 Order and under the 2005 Order, in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in regulations made by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in relation to Great Britain, the requirement for consultation under Article 117(1) of the 1995 Order does not apply by virtue of paragraph (2)(e) of that Article and the requirement for consultation under Article 289(1) of the 2005 Order does not apply by virtue of paragraph (2)(e) of that Article.