s 5 Duty to report on operation of buy-out arrangements
(1) The Department must, after the end of each financial year for which buy-out arrangements are published by it, prepare a report on the operation of the arrangements in that year. (2) A report under this section in respect of a financial year must, in particular, set out— (a) the number of participants who have received a buy-out payment in that year, and (b) the total amount of the buy-out payments made by the Department in that year. (3) In the period while there is no Executive— (a) the Department must send a report under this section to the Secretary of State, and (b) the Secretary of State must lay the report before Parliament. (4) At any other time, the Department must lay a report under this section before the Northern Ireland Assembly. (5) In this section “ the Department ”, “ buy-out arrangements ”, “ buy-out payment ” and “ the period while there is no Executive ” have the same meaning as in regulation 23B of the 2012 Regulations (inserted by section 4).