Service of notices and documents
15.—(1) This regulation applies to any notification, report or other document which is required to be sent to a creditor of a UK insurer by a provision of this Part (“a relevant notification”).
(2) A relevant notification may be sent to a creditor by one of the following methods—
(a)by posting it to the proper address of the creditor;
(b)by transmitting it electronically, in accordance with paragraph (4).
(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2)(a), the proper address of a creditor is any current address provided by that person as an address for service of a relevant notification and, if no such address is provided—
(a)the last known address of that creditor (whether his residence or a place where he carries on business);
(b)in the case of a body corporate, the address of its registered or principal office; or
(c)in the case of an unincorporated association, the address of its principal office.
(4) A relevant notification may be transmitted electronically only if it is sent to—
(a)an electronic address notified to the relevant officer by the creditor for this purpose; or
(b)if no such address has been notified, to an electronic address at which the relevant officer reasonably believes the creditor will receive the notification.
(5) The requirement to send a relevant notification to a creditor shall also be treated as satisfied if the conditions set out in paragraph (6) are satisfied.
(6) The conditions of this paragraph are satisfied in the case of a relevant notification if—
(a)the creditor has agreed with—
(i)the UK insurer which is liable under the creditor’s claim, or
(ii)the relevant officer,
that information which is required to be sent to him (whether pursuant to a statutory or contractual obligation, or otherwise) may instead be accessed by him on a web site;
(b)the agreement applies to the relevant notification in question;
(c)the creditor is notified of—
(i)the publication of the relevant notification on a web site,
(ii)the address of that web site,
(iii)the place on that web site where the relevant notification may be accessed, and how it may be accessed; and
(d)the relevant notification is published on that web site throughout a period of at least one month beginning with the date on which the creditor is notified in accordance with sub-paragraph (c).
(7) Where, in a case in which paragraph (5) is relied on for compliance with a requirement of regulation 12 or 14—
(a)a relevant notification is published for a part, but not all, of the period mentioned in paragraph (6)(d), but
(b)the failure to publish it throughout that period is wholly attributable to circumstances which it would not be reasonable to have expected the relevant officer to prevent or avoid,
no offence is committed under regulation 12(10) or regulation 14(5) (as the case may be) by reason of that failure.
(8) In this regulation—
(a)“electronic address” includes any number or address used for the purposes of receiving electronic communications which are sent electronically;
(b)“electronic communication” means an electronic communication within the meaning of the Electronic Communications Act 2000(1) the processing of which on receipt is intended to produce writing; and
(c)“relevant officer” means (as the case may be) an administrator, liquidator, provisional liquidator or supervisor who is required to send a relevant notification to a creditor by a provision of this Part.