The Occupational Pension Schemes (Charges and Governance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015

Annual statement regarding governance

17.—(1) After regulation 22 of the Administration Regulations (duty to appoint a chair of the trustees or managers) add—

“Annual statement regarding governance

23.— (1) Subject to paragraph (3), the trustees or managers of a relevant scheme must prepare a statement within 7 months of the end of each scheme year and that statement must—

(a) in relation to the default arrangement—

(i) include the latest statement prepared in accordance with regulation 2A of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005(1) (additional requirements in relation to default arrangement);

(ii) describe any review undertaken during the scheme year in accordance with paragraph (2) of that regulation;

(iii) explain any changes resulting from such a review; and

(iv) where no review was undertaken during the scheme year, give the date of the last review;

(b) describe how the requirements of regulation 24(2) have been met during the scheme year;

(c) in relation to the charges and transaction costs which the trustees or managers are required to calculate in accordance with regulation 25(1)(a)—

(i) state the level of charges and transaction costs applicable to the default arrangement during the scheme year or, where the scheme has more than one default arrangement, state the range of the levels of charges and transaction costs applicable to those arrangements;

(ii) state the range of the levels of charges and transaction costs applicable to all funds which are not part of the default arrangement and in which assets relating to members are invested during the scheme year;

(iii) indicate any information about transaction costs which the trustees or managers have been unable to obtain and explain what steps are being taken to obtain that information in the future; and

(iv) explain the trustees’ or managers’ assessment, in accordance with regulation 25(1)(b), of the extent to which the charges and transaction costs represent good value for members;

(d) describe how the requirements of Articles 224 and 225(3) of the 2005 Order (requirements for knowledge and understanding: individual trustees and corporate trustees) have been met during the scheme year and explain how the combined knowledge and understanding of the trustees or managers, together with the advice which is available to them, enables them properly to exercise their functions as trustees or managers of the scheme; and

(e) be signed on behalf of the trustees or managers by the chair.

(2) Where the first statement required to be prepared by the trustees or managers of a relevant scheme in accordance with this regulation relates to a scheme year which ends before 5th April 2016, this regulation applies to that statement as if references to “the scheme year” in sub-paragraphs (a) to (d) of paragraph (1) were references to “the part of the scheme year beginning on 6th April 2015”.

(3) Where the circumstances in paragraph (2) apply and the period to be covered by the first statement is 3 months or less, paragraph (1) does not apply to that scheme year, but the statement required to be prepared in relation to the following scheme year must include information relating to the period of 3 months or less of the previous scheme year.

(4) In this regulation “default arrangement”(4) has the same meaning as in the Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005.”.

(2) In Schedule 3 to the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014 (information to be given on request) after paragraph 33 add—

“34.   Where the scheme is a relevant scheme within the meaning of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997, the statement which the trustees or managers are required to prepare by regulation 23 of those Regulations (annual statement regarding governance).”.

(1)

S.R. 2005 No. 569; regulation 2A is inserted by regulation 20(3) of these Regulations

(2)

Regulations 24 and 25 are inserted by regulations 18 and 19 of these Regulations

(3)

Article 225 was amended by paragraph 252(9) of Schedule 1 to S.I. 2009/1941

(4)

The definition of “default arrangement” is inserted by regulation 20(2)(a) of these Regulations