Explanatory note

These Regulations apply where a pension sharing or pension attachment order or provision was made before the Board of the Pension Protection Fund (“the Board”) assumed responsibility for an occupational pension scheme and (in the case of a pension sharing order or provision) was not implemented by the trustees or managers of the scheme prior to the scheme’s transfer to the Pension Protection Fund. The Regulations set out the costs which may be charged to the parties to the order or provision and the circumstances in which the Board may recover the costs of implementing a pension sharing order or provision, or complying with a pension attachment order or provision.

Regulation 1 provides for citation, commencement and interpretation.

Regulation 2 sets out the information that the Board must provide to the parties where a pension sharing order or provision or pension attachment order or provision has been made before the Board assumed responsibility for a scheme, and the Board has become responsible for implementing or complying with the order or provision.

Regulation 3 sets out the circumstances in which the Board may recover costs from the parties to a pension sharing order or provision or an attachment order or provision.

Regulation 4 permits the Board to recover from the parties to a pension sharing order or provision the costs of implementing that order and of providing information associated with implementation of that order. The Board may also recover costs in relation to the reasonable administrative expenses which it has incurred by reason of complying with a pension attachment order or provision.

Regulation 5 sets out the methods by which, and the circumstances in which, the Board may recover the costs.

The Pensions (2008 No. 2 Act) (Commencement No. 5) Order (Northern Ireland) 2011 (S.R. 2011 No. 108 (C. 7)) provides for the coming into operation of section 99 of the Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 (c. 13 (N.I.)), which inserts Article 152A into the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005, one of the enabling provisions under which these Regulations are made, for the purpose only of conferring power to make regulations, on 16th March 2011 and in so far as it is not already in operation on 6th April 2011.

As these Regulations 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 to consult under Article 289(1) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 does not apply by virtue of paragraph (2)(e) of that Article.

An assessment of the impact of the legislative changes made by Part 3 of the Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 is included in the Regulatory Impact Assessment which accompanied that Act, a copy of which has been laid in the Business Office and the Library of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Copies of that assessment are available from the Department for Social Development, Social Security Policy and Legislation Division, Level 1, James House, 2-4 Cromac Avenue, Gasworks Business Park, Ormeau Road, Belfast BT7 2JA or from the website: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/ssa/ssani-publications/ssani-pensions-publications.htm.