The Occupational Pension Schemes (Independent Trustee) Regulations 2005

• Citation: S.I. 2005/703
• Sections: 14

Section 1 Citation, commencement and interpretation

(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Occupational Pension Schemes (Independent Trustee) Regulations 2005, and shall come into force on 11th April 2005.

(2) In these Regulations—

“ the 1995 Act ” means the Pensions Act 1995;

“ the 2004 Act ” means the Pensions Act 2004;

“ applicant ” means a person who applies to be registered in the trustee register;

“ controller ” means, where the applicant is a company, a person who holds 10 per cent. or more of the shares in the applicant, and exercises significant influence over the management of the applicant by virtue of that shareholding;

“ key person ” in relation to an applicant who is not an individual means a person who has overall management responsibility for the pension trustee work conducted by the applicant;

“ officer ” means—

a relevant individual who has significant influence over the management of the pension trustee work; or

any person whose signature may authorise, in part or in full, a transaction involving the assets of any scheme for which the applicant acts as trustee;

“ pension trustee work ” means the work as a trustee carried out by the applicant in relation to trust schemes;

“ pension scheme registration number ”, in relation to a scheme, refers to the number given to the scheme when it is placed on the register of occupational and personal pension schemes compiled and maintained by the Regulator ;

“ the Regulator ” means the Pensions Regulator established under section 1 of the 2004 Act (the Pensions Regulator);

“ relevant individual ” means a director, member of the committee of management, chief executive, designated member in relation to a limited liability partnership, partner or controller;

“ trustee register ” means the register compiled and maintained by the Regulator under regulation 2;

and other expressions used in these Regulations have the same meaning as in Part 1 of the 1995 Act (occupational pension schemes).

Section 2 The trustee register

The Regulator must compile and maintain a register of persons who satisfy the conditions set out in regulation 3.

Section 3 Conditions for registration

The conditions for registration prescribed for the purposes of section 23(4) of the 1995 Act (power to appoint independent trustees) are—

(a) the applicant must not, at the time he is making the application or at any time while he is registered in the trustee register, be any of the following—

(i) the subject of a prohibition order made under section 3 of the 1995 Act (prohibition orders),

(ii) the subject of a suspension order made under section 4 of the 1995 Act (suspension orders), or

(iii) disqualified for being a trustee of any trust scheme on any of the grounds set out in subsection (1) of section 29 of the 1995 Act (persons disqualified for being trustees), or by virtue of being the subject of an order made under subsection (3) or (4) of that section;

(b) the Regulator is satisfied that—

(i) the applicant has sufficient relevant experience of occupational pension schemes,

(ii) the applicant is a fit and proper person to act as a trustee of an occupational pension scheme,

(iii) the applicant operates sound administrative and accounting procedures, and

(iv) the applicant has adequate indemnity insurance cover;

(c) where the applicant is not an individual—

(i) each officer of the applicant must satisfy the conditions specified in paragraphs (a) and (b)(ii) above, and

(ii) each key person must satisfy the conditions specified in paragraphs (a) and (b)(i) and (ii) above;

(d) the applicant has premises in the United Kingdom from which he conducts his business as a trustee of an occupational pension scheme, and he discloses the address of those premises to the Regulator;

(e) the applicant agrees—

(i) to have his fees and costs scrutinised by an independent adjudicator and to be bound by that adjudicator's final adjudication as to his fees and costs,

(ii) to the Regulator disclosing his name, business address and the areas of trustee work in which he specialises on the version of the trustee register which is to be publicly available,

(iii) to comply with reasonable requests of the Regulator to provide information to the Regulator, and

(iv) to inform the Regulator as soon as is reasonably practicable if he becomes disqualified under section 29 of the 1995 Act—

(aa) for one of the reasons set out in subsection (1) of that section, or

(bb) by virtue of being the subject of an order made under subsection (3)(b) of that section.

Section 4 Refusing to register an applicant in the trustee register

(1) The function set out in paragraph (2) is prescribed for the purposes of section 93(2)(q) of the 2004 Act (the Regulator's procedure in relation to its regulatory functions).

(2) The function referred to in paragraph (1) is the Regulator's duty under section 23(4) of the 1995 Act and regulation 2 to compile and maintain a register of persons who satisfy prescribed conditions to act as independent trustees, but only in so far as that duty entails refusing to register an applicant in that register.

(3) The Regulator may, in such circumstances as it sees fit, delegate the function specified in paragraph (2) to the Determinations Panel .

Section 5 Removal from the trustee register - amendment of Schedule 2 to the 2004 Act

(1) Schedule 2 to the 2004 Act is amended in accordance with paragraph (2) of this regulation.

(2) In Part 2, after paragraph 13, insert—

(13A) The duty under section 23(4), and regulations made thereunder, to compile and maintain a register of persons who satisfy prescribed conditions to act as independent trustees, but only in so far as that duty entails the removal of a person from that register if he does not satisfy, or no longer satisfies, any such prescribed condition.

Section 6 Removal from the trustee register – prescribed regulatory function

(1) The function set out in paragraph (2) is prescribed for the purposes of section 97(5)(u) of the 2004 Act (special procedure: applicable cases).

(2) The function referred to in paragraph (1) is the Regulator's duty under section 23(4) of the 1995 Act, and regulations made thereunder, to compile and maintain a register of persons who satisfy prescribed conditions to act as independent trustees, but only in so far as that duty entails the removal of a person from that register if he does not satisfy, or no longer satisfies, any such prescribed condition.

Section 7 Removal from the trustee register – supplementary provision

The validity of the appointment of an independent trustee under section 23(1) of the 1995 Act or any action taken by him during that appointment is not to be affected by that trustee's subsequent removal from the register.

Section 8 Notification

(1) A notice given under section 22(2B) of the 1995 Act (circumstances in which provisions relating to independent trustees apply) shall contain the information specified in paragraph (2).

(2) The information specified for the purposes of paragraph (1) is—

(a) that the notice is a notice given under section 22(2B) of that Act;

(b) the date of the notice;

(c) the name and address of the scheme;

(d) the pension scheme registration number;

(e) the names and addresses of all trustees of the scheme;

(f) the name of the employer or employers to which the circumstances set out in section 22(1) of the 1995 Act apply;

(g) the name and address of the responsible person giving the notice; and

(h) the date of the responsible person's appointment, or the date on which that appointment is to end.

Section 9 Access to the trustee register

(1) The Regulator shall provide the most recent copy of the register to any person on request, and may do so either—

(a) free of charge, or

(b) on the payment by that person of a charge determined by the Regulator which does not exceed the expense incurred in copying, packing and posting the copy.

(2) The Regulator may publish the register in any way.

Section 10 Multi-employer schemes

(1) Where section 22 of the 1995 Act applies in relation to a trust scheme which is a multi-employer scheme, by virtue of the circumstances set out in section 22(1) or of that Act applying to at least one employer in that scheme, sections 22 to 26 of that Act (provisions relating to independent trustees) are modified so that references to the employer in those sections are to be treated as if they were references to each employer to which section 22 applies.

(2) In this regulation “ multi-employer scheme ” means a trust scheme in relation to which there is more than one employer.

Section 11 Cases where a partnership is the employer

(1) Sections 22 to 26 of the 1995 Act are modified as specified in paragraphs (2) and (3) of this regulation in their application to any case where—

(a) a partnership is the employer or one of the employers in relation to a trust scheme;

(b) the partnership is insolvent; and

(c) the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction to wind up the insolvent partnership.

(2) Section 22(1) shall be modified so as to apply in relation to the scheme—

(a) if a person begins to act as an insolvency practitioner in relation to the insolvent partnership; or

(b) if the official receiver becomes the liquidator or provisional liquidator of the insolvent partnership.

(3) Where, by virtue of paragraph (2), section 22 applies in relation to the scheme, subsections (2) to (3) of that section and sections 23 to 26 shall have effect as if references in those provisions to a company included references to the insolvent partnership.

Section 12 Extension of the meaning of “employer”

For the purposes of sections 22 to 26 of the 1995 Act and these Regulations references to the employer shall include a person who would have been an employer to whom the circumstances set out in section 22(1)(a) or (b) of that Act apply, but for the fact that, immediately before an insolvency practitioner or the official receiver began to act as set out in those subsections, that person no longer employed any persons in the description of employment to which the scheme in question relates.

Section 13 Disclosure requirements and penalty

(1) A trustee appointed to a scheme by order made under section 7(1) or (3) of the 1995 Act (appointment of trustees) and an independent trustee appointed to a scheme by order made under section 23(1) of the 1995 Act (both referred to in this regulation as “ the appointed trustee ”) must furnish the information specified in paragraph (2) in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.

(2) The information specified for the purposes of paragraph (1) is—

(a) the name and address of the appointed trustee;

(b) the scale of fees that will be chargeable by the appointed trustee and payable by the scheme;

(c) details of each of the amounts charged to the scheme by the appointed trustee in the past 12 months.

(3) The appointed trustee must furnish the information specified in paragraph (2)(a) in writing to every member or relevant trade union as of course within a reasonable period following his appointment.

(4) The appointed trustee must furnish any of the information specified in paragraph (2) in writing to any member or prospective member or relevant trade union on request (not being a request made less than 12 months after the last occasion on which such information was furnished to the same person or trade union) within a reasonable period following the request being made.

(5) Where the appointed trustee fails to take all reasonable steps to comply with any requirement imposed upon him by this regulation, the Regulator may by notice in writing require him to pay, within 28 days, a penalty which—

(a) in the case of an individual, shall not exceed £5,000; and

(b) in any other case, shall not exceed £50,000.

(6) In this regulation—

“member”—

does not include a deferred member whose present address is not known to the trustees and in respect of whom correspondence sent by the trustees to his last known address has been returned, and

includes a person who is in receipt of benefits under the scheme by virtue of having been a dependant of someone who was a member;

“ prospective member ” means any person who, under the terms of his contract of service and the scheme rules—

is eligible, at his own option, to become a member of the scheme;

will become so eligible if he continues in the same employment for a sufficiently long period;

will be admitted to membership of the scheme automatically unless he makes an election not to become a member; or

may be admitted to it subject to the consent of his employer;

“ relevant trade union ” means an independent trade union recognised to any extent for the purposes of collective bargaining in relation to members and prospective members of the scheme in question; and

“ request ” means a request in writing.

(7) Any question as to whether an organisation is a relevant trade union shall be referred to an employment tribunal.

(8) Any information which this regulation requires the appointed trustee to furnish as of course to a member who is not in any employment to which the scheme relates shall be deemed to have been so furnished if it was sent to him by post to his last address known to the trustees.

(9) The appointed trustee may give any information under this regulation in accordance with regulations 26 to 28 of the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013 (giving information and documents).

Section 14 Revocation

(1) The Occupational Pension Schemes (Independent Trustee) Regulations 1997 are hereby revoked.

(2) Regulation 10 of the Personal and Occupational Pension Schemes (Miscellaneous Amendments) ( No. 2) Regulations 1997 ((amendment of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Independent Trustees) Regulations 1997) is hereby revoked.

(3) Regulations 3 and 4 of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Winding up Notices and Reports etc. ) Regulations 2002 (schemes within section 22 of the 1995 Act: appointment of independent trustee, and other schemes: notice to the Authority that section 26B of the 1995 Act applies) are hereby revoked.