{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/registered-pension-schemes-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-2011/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/registered-pension-schemes-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-2011/note.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/2011/1751",
  "legislation_title": "The Registered Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2011",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/registered-pension-schemes-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-2011",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nFrom 6th April 2011, Schedule 16 to the Finance Act 2011 (“FA 2011”) amends Part 4 (pension schemes etc) of the Finance Act 2004 (“FA 2004”) to remove certain tax rules that require members of registered pension schemes to secure an income, usually by buying an annuity, by age 75. The amendments replace the concept of an “unsecured pension” and an “alternatively secured pension” with the concept of a “drawdown pension”. Schedule 17 to FA 2011 amends FA 2004 so as to reduce the annual allowance for pension savings from £255,000 to £50,000 with effect from 6th April 2011. Schedule 18 to FA 2011 also amends the standard lifetime allowance from £1.8M to £1.5M with effect from 6th April 2012. These Regulations make consequential amendments to a number of statutory instruments to reflect the changes made by FA 2011.\nRegulations 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8(2), (3), (5) and (6) and 12 have retrospective effect. Section 282(A1) of FA 2004 provides that regulations made under Part 4 of that Act may include provision having effect in relation to times before the regulations are made if that provision does not increase any person’s liability to tax. Paragraph 108 of Schedule 16 to FA 2011 provides for regulations which are made in consequence of the amendments made to Part 4 of FA 2004 by that Schedule in the tax year beginning on 6th April 2011, to have retrospective effect in circumstances where they may increase a person’s liability to tax. The only regulation that could potentially increase a person’s liability to tax is regulation 2.\nRegulation 2 amends the Pension Benefits (Insurance Company Liable as Scheme Administrator) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/136; “the Insurance Company Regulations”) so that they apply to payment of a drawdown pension fund lump sum death benefit instead of an unsecured pension fund lump sum death benefit. The Insurance Company Regulations impose obligations on insurance companies which make payments of lump sum death benefits falling within section 273A(1) of FA 2004.\nRegulations 3, 4 and 5 make consequential amendments to the Registered Pension Schemes (Authorised Surplus Payments) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/574) to remove redundant references to “alternatively secured pension”.\nRegulation 6 makes consequential amendments to the Registered Pension Schemes (Relevant Annuities) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/129; “the Relevant Annuities Regulations”). The Relevant Annuities Regulations provide definitions of a “relevant annuity” and the “annual amount” of a relevant annuity for the purposes of calculating the “basis amount” referred to in sections 165 and 167 of FA 2004. These amendments reflect the fact that a member or dependant may now become entitled to a relevant annuity after reaching the age of 75 following the changes made by FA 2011.\nRegulation 7 amends the Registered Pension Schemes (Meaning of Pension Commencement Lump Sum) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/135; “the PCLS Regulations”) in consequence of the repeal of paragraph 1(1)(a) of Schedule 29 to FA 2004. The PCLS Regulations prescribe the circumstances in which a lump sum payment made by the scheme administrator to a scheme member in respect of an overpaid lifetime allowance charge is to be treated as a pension commencement lump sum (so that it will not be subject to a tax charge) even though it does not meet specified conditions. These Regulations remove the reference to the condition in paragraph (1)(1)(a) of Schedule 29 to FA 2004 which has been repealed.\nRegulations 8(1), (2), (4) and (5) make consequential changes to the Registered Pension Schemes (Authorised Payments) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/1171; “the Authorised Payments Regulations”) by removing regulations, or parts of regulations, which applied different rules to payments to persons under and over the age of 75.\nRegulation 8(3) makes a consequential amendment to the Authorised Payments Regulations following the amendment made to the standard lifetime allowance by FA 2011. In order to ensure that the limit referred to in regulation 10 of the Authorised Payments Regulations remains at £18,000, regulation 8(3) amends regulation 10(3)(b) by substituting £18,000 for the previous limit of 1% of the standard lifetime allowance. This amendment has effect in relation to payments made on or after 6th April 2012.\nRegulation 9 makes a consequential amendment to the table contained in regulation 3 of the Registered Pension Schemes (Accounting and Assessment) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/3454). A new entry is made requiring scheme administrators to report any amounts of the annual allowance charge which they become jointly and severally liable to pay under section 237B(7) of FA 2004 in the quarterly accounting for tax form. This amendment is made in consequence of the reduction in the annual allowance from £255,000 to £50,000 with effect from the 2011-12 tax year. Members of registered pension schemes can elect for their scheme administrator to become jointly and severally liable to pay the annual allowance charge relating to that scheme subject to a corresponding adjustment being made to their entitlement to benefits under the scheme. This legislation is contained in sections 237A to 237F of FA 2004.\nRegulation 10 makes consequential amendments to the Registered Pension Schemes (Prescribed Manner of Determining Amount of Annuities) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/568; “the Annuities Regulations”). Regulation 10(2)(a) corrects a typographical error in the Annuities Regulations. Regulation 10(2)(b) changes the minimum period by which an insurance company must hold a review under condition 2 of the principal Regulations from at least once every 5 years to at least once every 3 years.\nRegulation 11 makes provision for the coming into effect of the amendment made by regulation 10(2)(b) in specified circumstances. Where a review of the value of a lifetime annuity or dependants’ annuity has already taken place prior to the coming into force of these Regulations, the change of the review period from 5 to 3 years shall only take effect from the date of the next review.\nRegulation 12 makes consequential amendments to the Pension Schemes (Application of UK Provisions to Relevant Non-UK Schemes) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/207; “the RNUKS Regulations”) required as a result of the changes made to the annual allowance for tax-relieved pension savings by FA 2011. The amendments made by this regulation have retrospective effect from 6th April 2011 by virtue of the power contained in paragraph 12(2)(a) of Schedule 34 to FA 2004.\nThe changes made by Schedule 17 to FA 2011 to sections 231(3) and 235(3) of FA 2004 mean that for registered pension schemes calculating the appropriate percentage for cash balance and defined benefits arrangements will be based purely on the consumer prices index (“CPI”) rather than on a combination of factors including the retail prices index (“RPI”). These Regulations therefore amend regulations 9 and 10 of the RNUKS Regulations which modify sections 231 and 235 of FA 2004 for currently-relieved non-UK pension schemes, so as to replace references to the CPI with references to the relevant index.\nRegulation 12(2) omits regulation 8 of the RNUKS Regulations in line with the amendments made to section 227 of FA 2004 by FA 2011.\nA Tax Information and Impact Note covering this instrument was published on 9th December 2010 alongside draft legislation for the Finance (No.3) Bill 2011 concerning the restriction of pensions tax relief. This was updated on 3rd March 2011 to reflect further decisions relating to the restriction of pensions tax relief. A separate Tax Information and Impact Note covering the removal of the effective requirement to annuitise by age 75 was published on 9th December 2010. Both TIINs are available on the HMRC website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/thelibrary/tiins.htm. They each remain an accurate summary of the impacts of this instrument.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/1751/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T02:01:26.770155+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."
}