Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

The Department of the Environment in exercise of the powers conferred by Articles 9 and 14 of, and Schedule 3 to, the Superannuation (Northern Ireland) Order 1972[^f00001] and now vested in it[^f00002], being a Department designated for the purposes of Articles 164(3) of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 1995[^f00003], in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 164 of that Order and of every other power enabling it in that behalf and after consultation with the Association of Local Authorities of Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Local Government Officers' Superannuation Committee and such representatives of other persons likely to be affected by the regulations as appeared to it to be appropriate, hereby makes the following regulations:

Part A — Preliminary

Citation, commencement and retrospection

A1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 and shall come into operation on 1st August 2000 (“the commencement date”) and except as provided in paragraphs (2) to (10) shall have effect from that date.

• (2) Part F, except for regulations F7 and F8, regulations G8(3) and G9 shall have effect as from 6th April 1988.

• (3) Regulation B2(1) shall have effect as from 1st October 1989.

• (4) Regulation B9(2) shall have effect as from 1st April 1990.

• (5) Regulation D16(5) shall have effect as from 17th May 1990.

• (6) Paragraphs 1(1)(c) and (d) of Schedule D3 shall have effect as from 1st November 1991.

• (7) Regulation C6 shall have effect as from 1st January 1993.

• (8) Paragraphs 15 and 16 of Schedule C3 shall have effect as from 1st April 1993.

• (9) Regulations C12, D7, D9, D11(2)(e), D16(3), E1, H1(2)(h) and H6 shall have effect as from 2nd May 1995.

• (10) Regulation K17 shall have effect as from 9th April 1997.

Interpretation

A2

• (1) In these regulations the expressions defined in Schedule A1 (general definitions) and Schedule A2 (interpretation for pension sharing on divorce) have the meanings given to them by those Schedules.

• (2) In these regulations, any reference to a Part of these regulations includes a reference to any Schedules to these regulations referred to in that Part, in so far as they apply for its purposes.

• (3) So far as is necessary for the purpose of regulation A1(2) to (10) the regulations shall be deemed to have effect from and including 6th April 1988.

Part B — Membership

Eligibility

General eligibility of employees of LGPS employers

B1

• (1) Subject to the provisions of this Part, a person is only eligible to be a member of the occupational pension scheme constituted by these regulations (in these regulations referred to as “the Scheme”) if he is an employee of a LGPS employer.

• (2) In these regulations—

• (a) “employee” means an employee whether permanent or temporary; and

• (b) “a LGPS employer” is a local authority as defined in Article 2 of the Order of 1972[^f00004].

Age restrictions: meaning of “latest retirement age” and “LRD”

B2

• (1) A person is only eligible to be a member of the Scheme if he has attained the age of 16 years.

• (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (4) Subject to paragraph (5), a person is not eligible to be a member of the Scheme after he has attained the age of 65 and in these regulations, in relation to any person, “latest retirement age” (“LRA”) means that age and “latest retirement date” (“LRD”) means the date by which he attains that age.

• (5) A person is only eligible to be a member of the Scheme on and after his LRD if—

• (a) his total period of membership does not exceed the maximum referred to in paragraph (7); and

• (b) at least one of the conditions mentioned in paragraph (6) is satisfied in relation to him.

• (6) The conditions mentioned in paragraph (5) are—

• (a) at least one of the following has become payable to him—

• (i) a pension which is liable to be reduced or suspended under Schedule D5 (re-employed pensioners),

• (ii) an ill-health retirement grant under regulation D8, or under regulation E4 of the 1992 regulations, or under regulation 28A[^f00005] of the 1981 regulations,

• (b) he has received or is entitled to receive compensation under any enactment for loss of employment or loss or diminution of emoluments attributable to the provisions of an enactment, and the compensation is liable to be reduced or suspended, in consequence of his taking up employment with a LGPS employer, in the like manner and to the like extent as it would have been if he had remained eligible to belong to the occupational pension scheme to which he belonged or was eligible to belong immediately before suffering the loss.

• (7) The maximum referred to in paragraph (5)(a) is—

• (a) in the case of a Class A member (as defined in paragraph 1(1) of Schedule C4) 40 years, and

• (b) in the case of a Class B member or a Class C member (as so defined), the aggregate of—

• (i) his total period of membership before he attained the age of 60 years (disregarding any period in excess of 40 years), and

• (ii) his total period of membership since he attained that age (but not exceeding 5 years plus any period by which the period mentioned in paragraph (i) fell short of 40 years);

and in paragraph (5) and this paragraph “total period of membership” has the meaning given in regulation B13, except that it also includes any additional period of membership which the member has been treated as being entitled to count for the purposes of regulation D7 (enhancement in cases of retirement on grounds of ill-health) or any corresponding earlier provision.

Restrictions by reference to working hours: “part-time” and “variable-time” employees

B3

• (1) If an employee is in two or more employments under a single LGPS employer, he is eligible to be a member of the Scheme in respect of all (but not less than all) of the employments.

• (2) A person who is a variable-time employee of a LGPS employer is only eligible to be a member of the Scheme in respect of that employment if—

• (a) he is a member of the Scheme also in respect of whole-time or part-time employment with a LGPS employer who is so specified; or

• (b) having been such a member at the same time as being a member in respect of his variable-time employment, he has ceased to hold the whole-time or part-time employment; or

• (c) he is not also in the whole-time or part-time employment of a LGPS employer and his employer has by a statutory resolution—

• (i) specified him as being so eligible, or

• (ii) specified a class of employees to which he belongs as being so eligible.

• (3) For the purposes of these regulations—

• (a) an employee is a variable-time employee if in accordance with his terms of office or contract of employment he is to be treated as such for the purposes of the Scheme and either—

• (i) his remuneration is calculated by reference to his obligations in his employment (rather than necessarily by reference to the number of hours he has worked), or

• (ii) he holds an office or employment the functions of which are only exercisable on an occasional basis;

• (b) an employee is a whole-time employee if his contractual hours are not less than the number of hours which, in accordance with his terms of employment, is the number of contractual hours for a person employed in that employment on a whole-time basis; and

• (c) an employee is a part-time employee if he is neither a whole-time employee nor a variable-time employee.

• (4) In these regulations—

• “the contractual hours” means—the number of hours the employing authority is entitled to require the employee to work in each of the contractual weeks, orif there is any cyclical variation in those hours, the average of those hours over the cycle; orif there is any variation in those hours which is not cyclical, the average of those hours over the weeks in such period (not exceeding 12 months) as the employing authority considers appropriate, being a period for which, assuming that there will be no unpaid leave of absence, a wage or salary is payable to the employee; and

• “the contractual weeks” means the number of weeks in every period of 12 months for which (on that assumption) a wage or salary is payable to the employee.

Certain office-holders etc. to be treated as employees of LGPS employers

B4

In these regulations, references to employees of a LGPS employer shall be construed as including references to persons who are deemed for the purposes of these regulations to be in the employment of a LGPS employer and other provisions relating to employment by or under a LGPS employer shall be construed accordingly.

Separate employments etc.

B5

• (1) Where a person holds two or more separate employments under one LGPS employer then these regulations apply in relation to each of those employments as if the other or others were held by him under another LGPS employer.

• (2) For the purposes of these regulations, a clerk of a district council who performs functions under Article 9(2) (conduct of elections) of the Electoral Law (Northern Ireland) Order 1972[^f00006] shall, in relation to those functions, be treated as if he were employed by that council and any fees paid to him in connection with those functions shall be treated as remuneration paid to him by that council.

Power to extend eligibility to employees of other bodies (“admission agreements”)

B6

• (1) The Committee may make an admission agreement with any admission body.

• (2) An admission agreement is an agreement that all or any specified class of the admission body’s employees may be members.

• (3) These are admission bodies—

• (a) a body which provides a public service in the United Kingdom otherwise than for the purposes of gain and which either—

• (i) has sufficient links with a LGPS employer for the body and the LGPS employer to be regarded as having a community of interest, whether because the operations of the admission body are dependent on the operations of the LGPS employer or otherwise, or

• (ii) is approved by the Department for the purpose of admission to the Scheme;

• (b) a body to the funds of which any LGPS employer contributes;

• (c) a body to which any monies are payable from monies appropriated by or under an enactment as defined in section 98(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998;

• (d) a body representative—

• (i) of local authorities, or

• (ii) of local authorities and officers of local authorities, or

• (iii) of officers of local authorities, or

• (iv) of LGPS employers;

• (e) statutory undertakers;

• (f) non-statutory undertakers;

• (g) the managers of a voluntary school or grant maintained integrated school within the meaning of Article 2(2) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986;

• (h) the governing body of an institution of further education within the meaning of the Further Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997; and

• (i) a body which provides services or assets referred to in a transfer arrangement.

• (4) An admission body referred to in paragraph (3)(d)(iii) is only an admission body if it is formed for the purpose of consultation as to the common interests of local authorities and the discussion of matters relating to local government.

• (5) Approval under paragraph (3)(a)(ii) may be subject to such conditions as the Department thinks fit and it may withdraw approval at any time if such conditions are not met.

• (6) It must be a term of an admission agreement made with a non-associated admission body within paragraphs (3)(b) and (c) that the body which provides the funding or from which monies are appropriated (and, if more than one, all of them) guarantees the liability of the admission body to pay all amounts due from it under the Regulations.

• (7) In the case of an admission agreement with a transferee admission body—

• (a) the transferor LGPS employer, if not the Committee, must be a party to the admission agreement;

• (b) only those employees of the transferee admission body who are employed in connection with the provision of the services or assets referred to in the transfer arrangement are eligible to be members of the Scheme;

• (c) the admission agreement shall require an indemnity or bond in an approved form and with an authorised insurer or a relevant institution; and

• (d) provision shall be made for the matters set out in Schedule A3.

• (8) Where a transferor LGPS employer and a transferee admission body undertake to meet the requirements of paragraph (7), the Committee must admit to the Scheme the eligible employees of the transferee admission body and, where it does so, the terms on which it does so are the admission agreement for the purposes of these Regulations.

• (9) An admission agreement must terminate if the admission body ceases to be such a body.

• (10) An admission agreement may make such other provision about its termination as the parties to the agreement consider appropriate.

• (11) When the Committee makes an admission agreement, it must promptly inform the Department of the date the agreement takes effect, the admission body’s name and, in the case of an admission agreement with a transferee admission body, the name of the relevant transferor LGPS employer.

• (12) The Committee must notify the Commissioners of Inland Revenue of the admission of an admission body within the time prescribed in regulations made under section 605 of the Taxes Act and provide such information as may be so prescribed.

• (13) Any question which may arise between the Committee and any other party to an admission agreement relating to the construction of the agreement or to the rights and obligations under that agreement shall be referred in writing for determination to the Department.

• (14) An employee of an admission body may not be a member if he is a member of another occupational pension scheme (within the meaning of section 1 of the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993) other than where the accrual of benefits under that pension scheme would not affect approval of the Scheme as an approved scheme.

• (15) These Regulations apply to employment with an admission body in which the employee is a member in the same way as if the body were a LGPS employer.

• (16) In this regulation and in Schedule A3 (where applicable)—

• (a) “authorised insurer” means—

• (i) an insurance company authorised under section 3 or 4 of the Insurance Companies Act 1982 to carry on general business, or

• (ii) an EC company which is lawfully carrying on general business, or providing insurance of an appropriate class within general business, in the United Kingdom,

and expressions used in this definition and the Insurance Companies Act 1982 have the same meaning as in that Act;

• (b) “indemnity or bond in an approved form” means an indemnity or bond to meet a level of risk exposure arising on premature termination of the transfer arrangement actuarially assessed to the satisfaction of the Committee and the transferor LGPS employer if not the Committee;

• (c) “non-associated admission body” means a body described in—

• (i) paragraph (3)(a)(ii),

• (ii) paragraph (3)(b) where, at the date that the admission agreement is made, the contributions paid to a body by any one or more LGPS employers equal in total 50% or less of the total amount it receives from all sources, or

• (iii) paragraph 3(c);

• (d) “non-statutory undertakers” means a body who, though not authorised by any statutory provision to do so, is primarily engaged in carrying on—

• (i) any railway, light railway, road transport, water transport, canal, inland navigation, dock, harbour, pier; or

• (ii) any undertaking for the promotion of industrial development or the promotion of the development of tourist traffic;

• (e) “relevant institution” means—

• (i) an institution authorised under Part I of the Banking Act 1987 (regulation of deposit-taking business),

• (ii) a person to whom the restriction on acceptance of deposits in section 3 of that Act does not apply because he is specified in Schedule 2 to that Act (Central banks etc.), or

• (iii) a European authorised institution which has lawfully established a branch in the United Kingdom for the purpose of accepting deposits,

and “European authorised institution” has the same meaning as in the Banking Co-ordination (Second Council Directive) Regulations 1992;

• (f) “statutory undertakers” means a body authorised by any statutory provision to carry on—

• (i) any railway, light railway, road transport, water transport, canal, inland navigation, dock, harbour, pier; or

• (ii) any undertaking for the promotion of industrial development or the promotion of the development of tourist traffic;

• (g) “transferee admission body” means an admission body described in paragraph (3)(i);

• (h) “transfer arrangement” means a contract or other arrangement made with a transferor LGPS employer for the provision of, or making available of, services or assets, for the purposes of or in connection with the exercise of a function of that transferor LGPS employer; and

• (i) “transferor LGPS employer” means an authority or body which is a LGPS employer.