The Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996

[F1 Duty of trustees to carry out a qualifying tender process in connection with continued use of continuing in-scope FM providers E+W+S

7.— (1) The trustees of a relevant trust scheme to which this Part applies must, by the end of the relevant day, have carried out, or have had carried out on their behalf, a qualifying tender process in respect of the fiduciary management services provided under the arrangements with each of their continuing in-scope FM providers.

(2) But the duty in sub-paragraph (1) does not apply—

(a) in respect of any of those arrangements if the scheme—

(i) does not meet the AMT immediately before the commencement date or falls below the AMT on or after that date, and

(ii) will not meet the AMT at the end of the relevant day;

(b) where paragraph (a) does not apply, in respect of—

(i) any arrangements in relation to which a competitive tender process was carried out before the commencement date;

(ii) where the trustees are a contracting authority for the purposes of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, any arrangements made with an FM provider who was appointed as a result of a procurement carried out in accordance with those Regulations;

(iii) where the trustees are a contracting authority for the purposes of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, any arrangements made with an FM provider who was appointed as a result of a procurement under those Regulations;

(iv) where a continuing in-scope FM provider will cease to provide fiduciary management services to the trustees on or before the relevant day, the arrangements made with that provider[F2 ;

(v) where the trustees are a contracting authority for the purposes of the Procurement Act 2023, any arrangements made with an FM provider who was appointed as a result of a procurement carried out in accordance with that Act].

(3) For the avoidance of doubt, where the trustees of the scheme—

(a) have, before the commencement date, started but not completed a competitive tender process in relation to any arrangements with a continuing FM provider, and

(b) complete that competitive tender process before the end of the relevant day,

they are to be treated as having complied with the duty in paragraph (1).

(4) In this paragraph “the relevant day” means—

(a) where the scheme meets the condition in sub-paragraph (2) of paragraph 6 (regardless of whether the scheme also meets the AMT immediately before the commencement date)—

(i) if the period specified in Article 4.2 or 4.3 of the CMA Order ended before the commencement date, the commencement date;

(ii) otherwise, the last day of the period of five years beginning with the day on which the earliest of the arrangements with any of the continuing in-scope FM providers to be reviewed under this paragraph was entered into;

(b) in any other case—

(i) the last day of the period of five years beginning with the day on which the earliest of the arrangements with any of the continuing in-scope FM providers to be reviewed under this paragraph was entered into, or

(ii) if that period ended before the commencement date or will expire on or before the last day of the period of two years beginning with the commencement date (“the transition period”), the last day of the transition period.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Sch. inserted (1.10.2022) by The Occupational Pension Schemes (Governance and Registration) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/825), reg. 1(2), Sch.

F2 Sch. para. 7(2)(b)(v) inserted (24.2.2025) by The Procurement Act 2023 (Consequential and Other Amendments) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/163), regs. 1(2), 9(2)(b)