Several draft SIs relevant to pensions have been published recently.

1. The Registered Pension Schemes (Standard Lifetime and Annual Allowances) Order 2007 [PDF] sets the Allowances for the tax years 2007/8, 2008/9, 2009/10, 2010/11:

These figures were originally announced in documents accompanying the 2004 Budget. Finally, the figures are to be put on a statutory footing.

2. The Occupational Pension Schemes (Levies) (Amendment) Regulations 2007 concern levies on defined benefit schemes to pay for the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). We reported on a DWP consultation draft last October, noting that the proposal amounted to an increase of almost 50% in the administration levy; the figures have not changed. The Government's response [PDF] to the consultation explains why not. The DWP claims "these Regulations have only a negligible impact on the cost of business".

3. The Pension Protection Fund (Pension Compensation Cap) Order 2007 increases the amount of the compensation cap from 1 April 2007 to £29,928.56. The cap governs the maximum amount of compensation payable to a person who is under normal pension age on the assessment date and whose compensation is not derived from a pension payable on the grounds of ill health or a survivor's pension.

4. The Occupational Pension Schemes (Levy Ceiling) Order 2007 specifies that the ceiling on the PPF levies for the financial year beginning on 1 April 2007 is £804,450,000 (= the 2006/07 ceiling x RPI). However, by virtue of an earlier regulation, Reg 2 of the Pension Protection Fund (Levy Ceiling) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/2692), the actual figure will be £718,750,000.

5. The Social Security, Occupational Pension Schemes and Statutory Payments (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2007 amend various sets of regs including the Contracting-Out Regs (SI 1996/1172), to cover cases where an amount is retrospectively treated as earnings ("retrospective earnings") by regulations made under s.4B(2) of the Social Security Contributions & Benefits Act 1992 (inserted by the National Insurance Contributions Act 2006). The background to this is a Government statement on 2 December 2004 signalling that the Government would be prepared to act against income tax and National Insurance contribution avoidance involving employee remuneration by backdating any anti-avoidance legislation to 2 December 2004 if necessary.

6. The Social Security Contributions (Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2007 deal with the same subject as the previous item. The employer has to recalculate NIC liability as if the payments had been earnings at the time they were paid. This SI ensures that when employers do not pay over the new liabilities and the employee has not been involved in the non payment, those NICs that are due are to be treated as paid. This ensures that the contributions count for contributory benefit purposes. It also sets out the extent to which employers can recover additional employee contributions from the employee, and deals with the recording, reporting and payment to HMRC of NICs.

7. The Social Security (Contributions) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations 2007 [PDF] (not available at the time of writing on the opsi website)*, a third draft SI on retrospective earnings, ensure that the payments to employees are also retrospectively treated as earnings for national insurance purposes.

* Update 26 February

A slightly amended version - replacing the original draft laid before Parliament on 19 February - was posted on the opsi website today. Like all the other draft SIs listed above, it is subject to formal approval by resolution by each House of Parliament.