{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/occupational-pension-schemes-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-northern-ireland-2014/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/occupational-pension-schemes-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-northern-ireland-2014/note.json",
  "legislation": "nisr/2014/93",
  "legislation_title": "The Occupational Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/occupational-pension-schemes-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-northern-ireland-2014",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nThese Regulations amend the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (“the Scheme Administration Regulations”), the Occupational Pension Schemes (Discharge of Liability) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (“the Discharge of Liability Regulations”), the Transfer of Employment (Pension Protection) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 (“the Transfer of Employment Regulations”) and the Occupational Pension Schemes (Employer Debt) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 (“the Employer Debt Regulations”).\nRegulation 2 amends regulation 4 of the Scheme Administration Regulations. Regulation 4(2)(d) of those Regulations provides that a person shall be prohibited from acting as a statutory auditor on the grounds of lack of independence as set out in section 1214 of the Companies Act 2006 (c. 46). The amendment provides that regulation 4(2)(d) does not apply to the accounts and auditor’s statement for a relevant scheme for a scheme year—\nin which the scheme has at least 500 participating employers at the start of that scheme year, or\nwhich immediately precedes such a scheme year.\nA relevant scheme is a trust scheme which applies to earners in employment under different employers.\nRegulation 3 amends regulation 4 of the Discharge of Liability Regulations, which prescribes the conditions on which policies of insurance and annuity contracts may be commuted to provide a lump sum. The amendment ensures that commutation may take place if benefits secured by an insurance policy or annuity contract have become payable, the earner requests or consents to payment of a lump sum and the payment qualifies under the Finance Act 2004 (c. 12) as a pension commencement lump sum. However, commutation under this provision does not apply to benefits consisting of the guaranteed minimum pension (as defined in section 4(2) of the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993) of an earner or their widow, widower or surviving civil partner.\nRegulation 4 amends the Transfer of Employment Regulations to—\ninsert a definition of “remuneration period” (which is relevant to both regulations 2 and 3 of those Regulations);\ninsert a provision for the calculation of the employee’s remuneration;\nsubstitute regulation 2(2) to include a definition of “relevant contributions” for the purposes of regulation 2;\nsubstitute regulation 3 to define “relevant contributions” where the transferee sponsors a money purchase scheme or a stakeholder pension scheme. Contributions are “relevant contributions” if they match either those made by the employee, up to 6 per cent. of the employee’s remuneration or, in certain circumstances, the contributions the transferor had been required to make.\nRegulation 5 updates a reference in regulation 10(3) of the Employer Debt Regulations to take account of the repeal of Article 79(1)(c) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (“the 1995 Order”) and its re-enactment in Article 165(1)(b) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 (“the 2005 Order”).\nAs these Regulations, in so far as they are made under the 1995 Order and the 2005 Order, make in relation to Northern Ireland only provision corresponding to provision contained in regulations made by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in relation to Great Britain, the requirement for consultation does not apply by virtue of Article 117(2)(e) of the 1995 Order and Article 289(2)(e) of the 2005 Order.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2014/93/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T01:07:28.784744+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}