Explanatory note

These Regulations provide for the preservation of the pension rights of whole-time employees of road haulage undertakings acquired by the British Transport Commission and provide for those rights to continue during employment with the Commission.

Where the pension scheme of the acquired undertaking was operated through a fund the Commission are to receive a transfer value from the fund in respect of each participating employee who enters their service or whose accrued pension rights they become liable to preserve (Regs. 2 and 6). They are to give the employee who enters their service pension rights the same as, or as good as, those he had before the transfer, subject to the same conditions (Reg. 3). The pension payable is to be reduced if the employee has already received from the fund a return of his contributions, but he is to have an opportunity to refund the amount received and if he does so his full pension rights are to be restored (Reg. 8).

If the pension scheme of the acquired undertaking was operated by means of insurance policies the scheme is to continue unless it included persons other than those employed in the undertaking acquired by the Commission, in which case it is to be divided into two parts, the Commission's part and the transferor's part, for which separate policies are to be issued (Regs. 9 and 13). Employment with the Commission is to be treated as if it were with the former employer and the Commission are to take the former employer's place in relation to the scheme or, if the scheme is divided, to the Commission's part (Reg. 10 and paragraphs (6) and (7) of Reg. 13).

If the pension arrangements of the acquired undertaking were otherwise than a funded scheme or an insurance scheme (e.g. “ex gratia” payments under customary practice) the Commission are to give an employee who enters their service pension rights the same as, or as good as, the former employer would have given, subject to the same conditions (Reg. 14).

Regulations 4, 5, 7, 12 and 14 contain provision for the preservation of the accrued pension rights of employees who lose employment as a result of the transfer of the undertaking (in the case of participants in funded or insurance schemes, whether or not they pass into the service of the Commission). The rights are normally to be preserved until the employee reaches pensionable age or until some event occurs which under the rules of his scheme would have entitled him to receive pension, but where the rights are to be preserved by the Commission they may commute their liability for a lump sum payment where the amount involved does not exceed £250 and in certain other circumstances the employee has an option of taking an immediate lump sum. The accrued pension rights to be preserved are reduced if the employee has already received a return of his contributions or has been given a paid-up policy on losing employment, but a participant in a funded scheme may refund the amount received as return of contributions and if he does so his full accrued pension rights are to be restored (Regs. 8 and 12).

Provision is made for the settlement of disputes (Reg. 15).