On 12 February 2002 we reported the Government’s intention to further amend the Occupational Pension Schemes (Member-nominated Trustees and Directors) Regulations 1996 (SI 1996/1216). In a consultation paper on draft amending Regs, the DWP explained that this was a necessary 'stop-gap' measure pending the outcome of the Pickering Review, leaving the radical changes* introduced by the CSPASSA 2000 in the pending tray.

These Amendment Regs (SI 2002/2327) were finally laid on 13 September 2002. Their main impact is to extend the duration of approval of alternative arrangements ('employer opt-outs') for selecting the trustees or directors of a scheme. Presently, this runs for six years. Where an opt-out is already in place (or the MNT/MND process has been triggered) before 6 October 2002 - the date the new Regs come into force - it will now last for ten years, rather than the nine proposed in the consultation draft. Where the employer seeks fresh approval of an opt-out (or the MNT/MND process is first triggered) on or after 6 October 2002, that approval will now cease after four years, not three as the draft proposed.

An important relaxation carried through from the draft is that, if trustees allow, at any time from 6 October 2002 the employer can give notice of intention to propose alternative arrangements. Up to now, the employer had only a month from scheme inception (or the date at which the Regs first applied) in which to do this: if he failed, or the proposed opt-out failed to gain the members' acceptance within six months, he had to wait six years to try again**. A similar relaxation applies where the sole sponsoring employer of a scheme is also the sole trustee (a defect in the original draft has been corrected).

These relaxations may be short-lived, however. The February 2002 consultation paper noted that should the outcome of Pickering Review involve no change to the CSPASSA requirements*, DWP may well implement them within this (four-year) time -frame - which would cut the approval short. On the other hand, the further stretching of the three-year extension originally proposed suggests that the Government might be envisaging a more leisurely approach than the industry has been hoping for, towards simplifying pensions legislation.

* E.g. CSPASSA s. 45 (9) repeals the employer’s right to propose alternative arrangements under s. 17 of the Pensions Act 1995.