As we anticipated a couple of days ago, The Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Pension Liberation) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/992) were duly laid yesterday and come into force in 21 days time, on 27 April 2005. (The fact that Parliament won’t be sitting for most of this time, and so cannot provide effective scrutiny, is another unfortunate consequence of the dissolution). The meaning of "pension liberation" is given in s.18 of the Pensions Act 2004 (PA 04): Essentially, it refers to the transfer of pension rights out to a third party who proceeds to use the funds in an unauthorised way - typically, to pay a lump sum to the member, less a sizeable fee.

These regs are made under ss.19(7) and 21(4) PA 04, so that where a court orders restitution or the Regulator (TPR) makes a restraining order followed by a repatriation order, the payments count as "transfer payments" and all the provisions of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 apply, relating to transfers. They also modify the provisions which discharge trustees from the duty to provide benefits following a transfer, so that those discharges apply when an order described above is made, as long as the trustees have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the scheme they are transferring money into is genuine.

Also published yesterday (but brought into force on 1 April) were The Occupational Pension Schemes and Pension Protection Fund (Amendment) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/993). They ought to be an embarrassment to the DWP, for in 12 pages they amend a slew of SIs that have only just themselves been issued, viz

• The Pension Protection Fund (Compensation) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/670)
• The Pension Protection Fund (Entry Rules) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/590)
• The Pension Protection Fund (Multi-employer Schemes) (Modification) Regulations 2005( (SI 2005/441)
• The Pension Protection Fund (Review and Reconsideration of Reviewable Matters) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/669)
• The Pension Protection Fund (Reviewable Ill Health Pensions) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/652)
• The Pension Protection Fund (Valuation) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/672)
• The Occupational Pension Schemes (Employer Debt) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/678) and
• The Pensions Regulator (Contribution Notices and Restoration Orders) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/931).

The accompanying Explanatory Memorandum [PDF] explains these are variously

• technical changes needed to ensure the existing regulations work as intended or to clarify the intent;
• changes to correct grammatical errors; and
• changes to remove typographical errors