The Occupational Pension Schemes (Contracting-out) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Circumstances in which the Department may vary or cancel a contracting-out certificate

47.—(1) Where the Department has reason to suppose that any employment to which a contracting-out certificate applies should not continue to be contracted-out employment and the employer has not shown to the satisfaction of the Department that it should so continue, the Department may determine that the employment should not continue to be treated as contracted-out employment and where it so determines, it shall cancel or vary the certificate with effect, subject to paragraph (2), from such date as it may specify and the Department shall notify the employer in writing of its determination, the reasons for it and of the Department’s powers to review its determination.

(2) The date from which the cancellation or variation is to have effect may not be earlier than the date of the cancellation or variation, as the case may be, except—

(a) in a case of a salary related contracted-out scheme where the Department considers that the resources of the scheme have not been maintained at a sufficient level for maintaining all claims in respect of guaranteed minimum pensions and section 5(2B) rights so far as falling to be met out of those resources, the date may be the latest date on which in the opinion of the Department those resources were maintained at such a sufficient level;

(b) in a case of a salary related contracted-out scheme where the earners in employments to which the contracting-out certificate applies have ceased to qualify for guaranteed minimum pensions or benefits arising from section 5(2B) rights under the scheme, the date may be a date not earlier than the date on which, in the opinion of the Department, the said cessation occurred;

(c) in a case where the Department discovers that the scheme did not satisfy the requirements for being a contracted-out scheme at the date the contracting-out certificate was issued, the date may be the date from which the certificate had effect or any later date, or

(d) in a case where the Department considers that the scheme has ceased to satisfy the requirements for being a contracted-out scheme, the date may be any date not earlier than when, in the Department’s opinion, the scheme ceased to satisfy those requirements.

(3) In any case where the Department has cancelled or varied a certificate under paragraph (1) it may require the employer to give notice of the cancellation or variation, in the manner specified in regulation 3(3), to—

(a) the earners in relation to whom the employment was contracted out by virtue of the certificate immediately before its cancellation or variation;

(b) the trustees (if any) and administrator of the scheme by reference to which the employment was contracted out immediately before the cancellation or variation of the certificate, and

(c) the persons specified in regulation 3(1)(c) and (d),

and the Department may require any such notice to include such particulars (including particulars of the consequences of the cancellation or variation) as it considers appropriate.