The Employers’ Duties (Implementation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010

Made: 19th March 2010

Coming into operation: 1st September 2012

The Department for Social Development makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 12, 29(2) and (4), 30(8) and 113(2) of the Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008[^f00001].

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Employers’ Duties (Implementation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 and shall come into operation on 7th June 2012 immediately after the coming into operation of regulation 3(2)(a) of the Automatic Enrolment (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 .

• (2) In these Regulations—

• “deferral date” means the date specified in a notice given by an employer under regulation 4B(1) or (2);

• “employer” has the meaning given by regulation 2(2);

• “the employers’ duties” means sections 2 to 9;

• “HMRC” means Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs;

• “PAYE income” has the meaning given in section 683(1) of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003[^f00002];

• “PAYE reference number” means a number issued by HMRC to a corresponding PAYE scheme, enabling an employer to pay over amounts deducted to HMRC;

• “PAYE scheme” means the HMRC record applicable to an employer who—employs, orintends to employ,a worker to whom PAYE income is payable;

• “scheme administrator” has the same meaning as in section 270 of the Finance Act 2004[^f00003];

• “staging date” means the date when the employers’ duties apply to employers, prescribed in the third column of the Table;

• “staging date” means the date prescribed in accordance with regulation 2(1) on which the employers' duties apply to employers;

• “the Table” means the Table in regulation 4.

• (3) In these Regulations any reference to a numbered section is a reference to the section of the Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 bearing that number.

Application of the employers’ duties to employers

2

• (1) Except where an employer satisfies the conditions for early automatic enrolment in regulation 3 , the employers' duties do not apply to employers described in the first column of the Table until—

• (a) the corresponding staging date prescribed in the third column of the Table, or

• (b) in a case to which paragraph (1A) applies—

• (i) the corresponding staging date prescribed in the third column of the Table, or

• (ii) where the employer so chooses, the corresponding staging date prescribed in the third column of the Table as modified by regulation 4A .

• (1A) This paragraph applies in a case where, on 1st April 2012, the employer—

• (a) had less than 50 workers, and

• (b) had, or was part of, one or more PAYE schemes in which there were 50 or more persons.

• (2) For the purposes of these Regulations (except for regulations 4B and 4C) , an employer is a person within the meaning of section 70(7) who—

• (a) Has , or is part of, a PAYE scheme of any size, determined by the Regulator in accordance with paragraphs (3) and (4), or

• (b) meets any other description contained in the first column of the Table (including having no PAYE scheme).

• (3) The size of an employer’s PAYE scheme means the number of persons within that scheme.

• (4) The number of persons within a PAYE scheme is based on the latest information available to the Regulator, as at 1st April 2012.

• (5) Where—

• (a) the employers’ duties first apply to an employer in accordance with the Table, and

• (b) for any reason, an employer has another PAYE scheme (or schemes),

the employers’ duties apply to that employer in respect of the scheme (or schemes) mentioned in sub-paragraph (b) from the staging date applicable in relation to sub-paragraph (a) (and this is so even where the staging date mentioned in the Table for any such scheme (or schemes) is later than the staging date referred to in sub-paragraph (a)).

• (6) Any employer who first pays PAYE income in respect of a worker between—

• (a) 1st April 2012, and

• (b) up to (but not including) 1st October 2017 ,

is to be treated as a new employer in accordance with the relevant entry in the first column of the Table.

• (7) Where paragraph (6) applies, the employers’ duties do not apply to such an employer until PAYE income is first payable in respect of any worker and then only in accordance with the Table.

• (8) Where—

• (a) an employer first pays PAYE income in respect of any worker on or after 1st October 2017, and

• (b) the employers’ duties do not already apply to that employer,

the employers’ duties apply to that employer from the day on which that employer’s first worker begins to be employed by that employer.

• (9) This paragraph applies in the case of an employer who does not have a PAYE scheme in respect of any worker after 1st April 2017.

• (10) Where paragraph (9) applies and the employers' duties do not already apply to that employer, the employers' duties apply to that employer from the date on which the employer’s first worker begins to be employed by the employer .

Early automatic enrolment

3

• (1) Where the conditions in paragraphs (3) and (4) are both satisfied, the employers' duties apply to an employer from the early automatic enrolment date referred to in paragraph (5).

• (1A) This regulation does not apply where the employer has chosen a staging date in accordance with regulation 2(1)(b)(ii).

• (2) Where the condition in paragraph (3) is satisfied but the condition in paragraph (4) is not satisfied, the employers’ duties apply to an employer from the staging date corresponding to that employer’s description....

• (3) The first condition is that an employer must fall within any description in the first column of the Table.

• (4) The second condition is that an employer has chosen an early automatic enrolment date (referred to in paragraph (5)) for the employers’ duties to apply, which is earlier than the date mentioned in the third column of the Table corresponding to that employer, and has—

• (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (b) where, on the date the employer notifies the Regulator in accordance with sub-paragraph (c), the duty in section 3(2) (automatic enrolment) applies in relation to at least one of that employer's jobholders, secured the agreement of the trustees or managers (or scheme administrator or provider) of a pension scheme that that scheme is to be used by the employer to comply with those duties from that early automatic enrolment date, and

• (c) notified the Regulator accordingly in writing, at any time—

• (i) where paragraph (5)(a) or (d) applies, on or before the early automatic enrolment date;

• (ii) where paragraph (5)(b) applies, before 1st November 2012, or

• (iii) where paragraph (5)(c) applies, no later than the first day of the period of one month before the date specified in paragraph (5)(c).

• (5) The early automatic enrolment date is—

• (a) any date in the third column of the Table which is earlier than the staging date corresponding to that employer's description;

• (b) 1st December 2012, ...

• (c) in the case of an employer of 50,000 or more persons by PAYE scheme size or any other description, one of the following dates to be chosen by the employer—

• (i) 1st July 2012;

• (ii) 1st August 2012, or

• (iii) 1st September 2012.or

• (d) in the case of an employer who has no jobholder to whom the duty in section 3(2) (automatic enrolment) applies on the date the employer notifies the Regulator in accordance with paragraph 4(c)(i), any date which is earlier than the staging date corresponding to that employer's description.

Staging of the employers’ duties

4

• (1) The Table in this regulation sets out the application of the employers’ duties.

• (2) ...

Transitional periods for money purchase and personal pension schemes

5

For the purposes of section 29 (transitional periods for money purchase and personal pension schemes)—

• (a) the first transitional period..., beginning with the coming into operation of section 20 (quality requirement: UK money purchase schemes) , ends on 5th April 2018 , and

• (b) the second transitional period is one year, beginning with 6th April 2018 and ending on 5th April 2019 .

Transitional period for defined benefits and hybrid schemes

6

For the purposes of section 30 (transitional period for defined benefits and hybrid schemes), the transitional period for defined benefits and hybrid schemes..., beginning with the coming into operation of section 3 (automatic enrolment) , ends on 30th September 2017

Signed

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department for Social Development on 19th March 2010

Anne McCleary — A senior officer of the Department for Social Development

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Regulations make provision as to how sections 2 to 9 of the Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 (“the Act”) (“the employers’ duties”) apply to employers. Those duties include the duty on an employer (under section 3 of the Act) to make prescribed arrangements by which jobholders become active members of automatic enrolment pension schemes. These Regulations also set the transitional periods for money purchase and personal pension schemes and for defined benefits and hybrid schemes.

Regulation 2 makes provision for the application of the employers’ duties to employers.

Regulation 3 provides how the employers’ duties apply to an employer earlier than the date on which they otherwise would have applied to that employer, where an employer satisfies certain conditions.

Regulation 4 and the Table in it provide how the employers’ duties apply to employers over a period from 1st October 2012 to 1st September 2016.

Regulation 5 sets the length of the two transitional periods during which the quality requirement for UK money purchase and personal pension schemes is less than what is provided for in sections 20 and 26 of the Act. At the expiry of the two transitional periods, the quality requirement for those types of scheme will be what is provided for in the Act.

Regulation 6 prescribes the length of the transitional period for defined benefits and hybrid schemes. Where the conditions in section 30(2) of the Act are satisfied and continue to be satisfied during that transitional period, an employer is under a duty to make arrangements for jobholders to become active members of an automatic enrolment scheme from the end of that period.

An assessment of the cost to business of these Regulations is detailed in a Regulatory Impact Assessment, a copy of which has been laid in the Business Office and the Library of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Copies of the Assessment are available from the Department for Social Development, Social Security Policy and Legislation Division, Level 1, James House, 2-4 Cromac Avenue, Gasworks Business Park, Ormeau Road, Belfast BT7 2JA or from the website: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/ssa/ssani-publications/ssani-pensions-publications.htm. A copy of the Assessment is also annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside this Statutory Rule on the website: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/northernireland/ni-srni.htm.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 2008 c. 13 (N.I.)

[^f00002]: 2003 c. 1

[^f00003]: 2004 c.12

Editorial notes

[^key-2e50f5c59f765c49e2aba1ad4878d14e]: Words in reg. 1(1) substituted (7.6.2012) by The Automatic Enrolment (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 (S.R. 2012/232), regs. 1(1)(b), 3(2)(a)