23.—(1) The following persons shall not be an employer’s relevant employee for the purposes of Article 5—
(a)any employee whose employment would qualify him for membership of an occupational pension scheme of the employer had he been employed by that employer for more than 12 months;
(b)any employee whose employment would qualify him for membership of an occupational pension scheme of the employer if he were over the age of 18, or more than 5 years younger than the age which would be his normal pension age were he a member of the scheme;
(c)any employee who—
(i)had he wished to join an occupational pension scheme of the employer at some time in the past, would have qualified for membership of the scheme, and
(ii)is now excluded from membership of that scheme because he did not join the scheme at an earlier time;
(d)any employee who has been employed by the employer for a continuous period of less than three months;
(e)any employee whose earnings have fallen below the lower earnings limit for one or more weeks within the last 3 months, and
(f)any employee who is ineligible, by virtue of any statutory provision relating to tax or any restriction imposed by the Inland Revenue, to make contributions to a stakeholder pension scheme.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b) “normal pension age” means the earliest age at which the employee in question would, if he were a member of the scheme in question, be entitled to receive benefits (other than a guaranteed minimum pension) on retirement from employment to which the scheme applies, disregarding any rule of the scheme which makes special provision as to early retirement on grounds of ill-health or otherwise.