The Pensions Dashboards Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023

Connection according to the staging profile

15.—(1) Trustees or managers of a pension scheme which exists at the reference date and which has 100 or more relevant members at the reference date must—

(a) register the scheme with the Money and Pensions Service, having regard to the guidance referred to in paragraph (2)(d), and

(b) meet the requirements in paragraphs (2), (4) and (5).

(2) Unless a different deadline for connecting to the Money and Pensions Service already applies pursuant to regulation 16, 17, 19 or 20, trustees or managers must connect the pension scheme to the Money and Pensions Service—

(a) by no later than the staging deadline relevant to the scheme as set out in the fourth column of the table in Part 1 or 2 of Schedule 2;

(b) within the connection window for the scheme as referred to in paragraph (3);

(c) in compliance with—

(i) connection and security standards, and

(ii) technical standards,

published from time to time by the Money and Pensions Service;

(d) having regard to guidance on connection issued from time to time by the Money and Pensions Service and the Regulator either separately or jointly.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2)(b), the “connection window” for the scheme means—

(a) in the case of schemes within cohort 1(a) of the staging profile, the period of 5 months leading up to and including the staging deadline;

(b) in the case of schemes within any other cohort of the staging profile, the period of one month leading up to and including the staging deadline.

(4) Trustees or managers must keep a record of how they have carried out the steps set out in the guidance on connection referred to in paragraph (2)(d), or of alternative steps they have taken in order to comply with the requirements in this Part on connecting their pension scheme to the Money and Pensions Service, for at least 6 years from the end of the scheme year to which they relate.

(5) Trustees or managers must do the following—

(a) notify the Money and Pensions Service without delay of any of the following, in compliance with service standards and operational standards published from time to time by the Money and Pensions Service—

(i) connection state changes, such as downtime (whether scheduled or unscheduled) or maintenance;

(ii) systemic issues, such as cyber-attacks that could affect the security of the dashboards ecosystem;

(b) notify the Money and Pensions Service of any change in connection arrangements.

(6) The staging deadline that applies to a pension scheme under paragraph (2)(a) remains fixed, even if there is a change in the classification of the scheme type or in its size, unless—

(a) the deadline changes pursuant to regulation 16, 17, 19 or 20, or

(b) all the members of the scheme become pensioner members.

(7) Once a scheme has connected to the Money and Pensions Service, trustees or managers must use every endeavour to ensure that the scheme remains connected at all times.