The Occupational Pension Schemes (Master Trusts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024

Application for authorisation

4.—(1) The following provisions of this regulation apply for the purposes of section 4(5)(a) of the Act (application for authorisation).

(2) The other information to be included in an application, in relation to each person acting in a capacity mentioned in section 7(2) or (3) of the Act (fit and proper persons requirement), is—

(a) in the case of an individual—

(i) the person’s full name;

(ii) the person’s date of birth;

(iii) the title and description of the person’s role in relation to the scheme;

(iv) the person’s residential address and address for correspondence, if different, including any change to the residential address in the 5 years before the date of the application for authorisation;

(v) a criminal conviction certificate obtained by means of an application in accordance with section 112(1) of the Police Act 1997(1) or, in relation to the law of a country outside the United Kingdom, any equivalent document;

(b) in the case of a body corporate within the meaning given by section 1173(1) of the Companies Act—

(i) the full name of each person who exercises a function in respect of or on behalf of the body corporate acting in such a capacity;

(ii) the date of birth of each such person who is an individual;

(iii) the residential address and address for correspondence, if different, including any change to the residential address in the 5 years before the date of the application for authorisation;

(c) in the case of any person, responses to a list of questions raised by the Regulator in the application to assess whether the person is a fit and proper person.

(3) The other information to be included in an application, in relation to whether the systems and processes used in running the scheme are sufficient, is—

(a) in the case of a scheme in respect of which an annual statement of governance has been prepared as required by regulation 23(2) of the Administration Regulations, the most recent statement prepared in accordance with that regulation;

(b) in the case of a scheme in respect of which an annual statement of governance as required by regulation 23 of the Administration Regulations has not previously been prepared, a document which contains, as far as practicable, the information which would be required to be included in a document prepared under that regulation in respect of the scheme;

(c) in cases where a statement of investment principles(3) has been prepared in respect of a scheme in accordance with regulation 2 of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005(4), the most recent statement prepared in accordance with that regulation;

(d) detail of the systems and processes used, or intended to be used, in the running of the scheme, and whether they have been devised, applied or maintained by the scheme or a service provider, including details of the matters set out in Schedule 4.

(4) An application for authorisation must be accompanied by a fee of—

(a) £41,000 for an existing scheme, or

(b) £23,000 for a scheme which is not an existing scheme.

(5) In paragraph (4) “existing scheme” means a Master Trust scheme which was in operation before the commencement date.

(1)

1997 c. 50; section 112(1) was amended by Part 8 of Schedule 8 to the Policing and Crime Act 2009 (c. 26), section 80(1) of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (c. 9) and Article 37(a) of S.I. 2012/3006

(2)

Regulation 23 was added by regulation 17(1) of S.R. 2015 No. 309 and amended by regulation 5 of S.R. 2016 No. 192, regulation 2 of S.R. 2018 No. 53, regulation 2(2) of S.R. 2021 No. 272, regulation 2(3) of S.R. 2023 No. 158 and paragraph 1(4) of Schedule 7 to S.R. 2024 No. 15

(3)

“Statement of investment principles” is defined in Article 35(2) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (S.I. 1995/3213 (N.I. 22)); Article 35 was substituted by Article 221 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/255 (N.I. 1))

(4)

S.R. 2005 No. 569; regulation 2 was amended by regulation 4 of S.R. 2018 No. 165 and regulation 2 of S.R. 2019 No. 115