[F1PART 26AU.K.Arrangements and reconstructions: companies in financial difficulty

Special casesU.K.

901IPension schemesU.K.

(1)In a case where the company in respect of which a compromise or arrangement is proposed is or has been an employer in respect of an occupational pension scheme that is not a money purchase scheme, any notice or other document required to be sent to a creditor of the company must also be sent to the Pensions Regulator.

(2)In a case where the company in respect of which a compromise or arrangement is proposed is an employer in respect of an eligible scheme, any notice or other document required to be sent to a creditor of the company must also be sent to the Board of the Pension Protection Fund (“the Board”).

(3)The Secretary of State may by regulations provide that, in a case where—

(a)the company in respect of which a compromise or arrangement is proposed is an employer in respect of an eligible scheme, and

(b)the trustees or managers of the scheme are a creditor of the company,

the Board may exercise any rights, or any rights of a specified description, that are exercisable under this Part by the trustees or managers as a creditor of the company.

(4)Regulations under this section may provide that the Board may exercise any such rights—

(a)to the exclusion of the trustees or managers of the scheme, or

(b)in addition to the exercise of those rights by the trustees or managers of the scheme.

(5)Regulations under this section—

(a)may specify conditions that must be met before the Board may exercise any such rights;

(b)may provide for any such rights to be exercisable by the Board for a specified period;

(c)may make provision in connection with any such rights ceasing to be so exercisable at the end of such a period.

(6)Regulations under this section are subject to affirmative resolution procedure (but see subsection (7)).

(7)During the period of six months beginning with the day on which this section comes into force, regulations under this section are subject to approval after being made (and subsection (6) does not apply).

(8)For the purposes of subsection (7), section 1291 has effect as if any reference in that section to a period of 28 days were to a period of 40 days.

(9)In this section—

• “eligible scheme” means any pension scheme that is an eligible scheme for the purposes of section 126 of the Pensions Act 2004 or Article 110 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 (S.I. 2005/255 (N.I. 1));

• “employer”—

  (a)

  in subsection (1), means an employer within the meaning of section 318(1) of the Pensions Act 2004 or Article 2(2) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005;

  (b)

  in subsections (2) and (3)—

  (i)

  in the case of a pension scheme that is an eligible scheme for the purposes of section 126 of the Pensions Act 2004, has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of Part 2 of that Act (see section 318(1) and (4) of that Act);

  (ii)

  in the case of a pension scheme that is an eligible scheme for the purposes of Article 110 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005, has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of Part 3 of that Order (see Article 2(2) and (5) of that Order);

• “money purchase scheme” means a pension scheme that is a money purchase scheme for the purposes of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 (see section 181(1) of that Act) or the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993 (see section 176(1) of that Act);

• “occupational pension scheme” and “pension scheme” have the meaning given by section 1 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993;

• “specified” means specified in regulations under this section.]