(1)The Department must, after the end of each financial year for which buy-out arrangements are published by it, prepare a report on the operation of the arrangements in that year.
(2)A report under this section in respect of a financial year must, in particular, set out—
(a)the number of participants who have received a buy-out payment in that year, and
(b)the total amount of the buy-out payments made by the Department in that year.
(3)In the period while there is no Executive—
(a)the Department must send a report under this section to the Secretary of State, and
(b)the Secretary of State must lay the report before Parliament.
(4)At any other time, the Department must lay a report under this section before the Northern Ireland Assembly.
(5)In this section “the Department”, “buy-out arrangements”, “buy-out payment” and “the period while there is no Executive” have the same meaning as in regulation 23B of the 2012 Regulations (inserted by section 4).