Explanatory note

These Regulations make various amendments to seven Statutory Instruments about occupational and personal pension schemes.

Regulation 2 amends the Occupational Pension Schemes (Contracting-out) Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/1172) to correct an error in regulation 60.

Regulation 3 amends the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/1715) to remove the Devonport Royal Dockyard Pension Scheme from the list of those pension schemes which are exempt from the professional advisers requirements.

Regulation 4 replaces a reference in the Occupational Pension Schemes (Winding Up) Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/3126) to the Board for Actuarial Standards (BAS) guidance note “GN19” with a reference to relevant BAS standards, which should be taken into account for the purposes of calculating the value or amount of scheme assets or liabilities on wind-up.

Regulation 5 makes an amendment to the Pensions Sharing (Valuation) Regulations 2000 (S.I. 2000/1052) to correct certain cross references.

Regulation 6 replaces a reference in the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Funding) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/3377) to the BAS guidance note “GN49” with a general reference to any relevant guidance or standards issued by the BAS, which the actuary should have regard to when advising trustees and managers on the matters listed in section 230(1) of the Pensions Act 2004 (c.35).

Regulation 7 amends the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/349) to include in the listed changes on which an employer is required to consult the affected members before making that change to an occupational pension scheme, changing what elements of pay are included within pensionable earnings, and changing the proportion or limiting the amount of any element of pay that forms part of pensionable earnings.

Regulation 8 amends the Occupational Pension Schemes (Modification of Schemes) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/759) by inserting regulation 6A. This regulation permits the trustees of a trust scheme by resolution to alter a power of amendment in the scheme rules so as to remove a requirement for agreement, consent or approval of or continued approval of the scheme (referred to in this Note as ‘consent’) by the Inland Revenue or Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. It also permits the trustees of a scheme which has no power of amendment to modify the scheme so as to remove a requirement in the rules for consent by the Inland Revenue or Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. It is consequential to modifications made by regulation 2 of the Registered Pension Schemes (Modification of the Rules of Existing Schemes) Regulations 2009 (scheme rule amendments not to require the approval of H M Revenue and Customs), which requires trustees, in making an amendment to the scheme rules, to disregard any such requirement for consent to the extent that the provision requires such consent.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has only a negligible impact on the private and voluntary sectors.