Iron and Steel Act 1982

Section 8.

SCHEDULE 3Pension Rights of Employees

1(1)The Secretary of State may make regulations for all or any of the following purposes—

(a)for providing pensions to, or in respect of, persons who are or have been employed by the Corporation or the Iron and Steel Board or a company which has come into public ownership;

(b)for the establishment and administration of pension schemes and pension funds for the purposes of paragraph (a) above ;

(c)for the continuance, amendment, repeal or revocation of existing pension schemes relating to the like purposes, whatever the date on which they came into force, and of enactments relating thereto and of trust deeds, rules or other instruments made for the purposes thereof;

(d)for the transfer in whole or in part, or for the extinguishment, of liabilities under any such existing pension schemes ;

(e)for the transfer in whole or in part, or winding up, of pension funds held for the purposes of any such existing pension schemes; and

(f)for making any provision consequential on any such provision as aforesaid, including provision for the dissolution or winding up of bodies, whether incorporated or not, whose continued existence is unnecessary having regard to the regulations.

(2)Nothing in sub-paragraph (1)(b) to (e) above shall be taken to authorise the diversion of any funds referred to therein to purposes other than those of sub-paragraph (1)(a) above.

2(1)Where provision is made by any regulations under this Schedule for—

(a)the amendment, repeal or revocation of any existing pension scheme, or of any enactment relating thereto, or any trust deed, rules or other instrument made for the purposes thereof; or

(b)for the transfer or extinguishment of any liability under any pension scheme ; or

(c)for the transfer or winding up of any pension fund held for the purposes of any such scheme ;

the regulations shall be so framed as to secure that persons having pension rights under the scheme, whether or not they are persons mentioned in paragraph 1(1)(a) above, are, not placed in any worse position by reason of the amendment, repeal, revocation, transfer, extinguishment or winding up.

(2)Sub-paragraph (1) above shall have effect subject to such limitations as the Secretary of State may by regulations prescribe for meeting cases in which, in connection with any provision made by the [1949 c. 72.] Iron and Steel Act 1949 or the [1967 c. 17.] Iron and Steel Act 1967, or in anticipation of the making of any provision by the said Act of 1967, pension rights were created otherwise than in the ordinary course.

(3)Regulations made under this Schedule shall not be invalid by reason that they do not secure that persons having pension rights are not placed in any worse position by reason of any such amendment, repeal, revocation, transfer, extinguishment or winding up as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) above, but if the Secretary of State is satisfied, or it is determined as hereinafter mentioned, that any such regulations have failed to secure that result, the Secretary of State shall as soon as possible make the necessary amending regulations.

(4)Any dispute arising as to whether or not the said result has been secured by any regulations made under this Schedule shall be referred to, and determined by, an industrial tribunal.

(5)Where, by reason of any such amendment, repeal, revocation, transfer, extinguishment or winding up as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) above, loss is suffered by any person (not being a publicly-owned company) liable as an employer to make contributions, or to pay pensions, under the existing pension scheme in question, the Corporation shall pay compensation to that person in respect of that loss, and the amount thereof shall, in default of agreement between the Corporation and that person, be determined by arbitration under this Act.

3Without prejudice to the generality of the preceding provisions of this Schedule, regulations made under this Schedule may contain provisions authorising the treatment of any person who, being a participant in any pension scheme to which the regulations relate, becomes a member of the Corporation as if his service as a member of the Corporation were service as an employee of the Corporation, and the pension rights of any such person resulting from the operation of any such provision shall not be affected by the provisions of paragraph 7(b) of Schedule 1 to this Act which require that the pensions, if any, which are to be paid in the case of certain members of the Corporation are to be determined by the Secretary of State with the approval of the Treasury.

4(1)Regulations made under this Schedule may contain such supplementary and consequential provisions as the Secretary of State thinks necessary, including provisions as to the manner in which questions arising under the regulations are to be determined and provisions adapting, modifying or repealing enactments, whether of general or special application.

(2)Regulations made under this Schedule may be made so as to have effect from a date prior to their being made, but so much of any regulations as provides that any provision is to have effect from such a prior date shall not place any person, other than the Corporation or a publicly-owned company, in a worse position than he would have been in if the regulations had been made to have effect only as from the date on which they were made.

5In this Schedule—

  • " pension fund " means a fund established for the purposes of paying pensions ;

  • " pension rights " includes, in relation to any person, all forms of right to, or eligibility for, the present or future payment of a pension to, or in respect of, that person, and any expectation of the accruer of a pension to, or in respect of that person under any customary practice, and includes a right of allocation in respect of the present or future payment of a pension;

  • "pension scheme" includes any form of arrangements for the payment of pensions, whether subsisting by virtue of an Act, trust, contract, or otherwise, and includes any customary practice under which pensions are paid.