PART II

PRIMARY PROVISIONS

CHAPTER I

MEMBERSHIP

Eligibility for active membership

General eligibility for membership: employees of Scheme employers etc.

4.-(1) A person may only be an active member if this regulation, regulation 5 or Chapter I of Part V enables him to be one and he is not prevented by regulation 6.

(2) A person may be a member if he is employed by a Scheme employer.

(3) A Scheme employer is a body which is listed in Schedule 2 or is a resolution body.

(4) But a person who is employed by a resolution body may only be a member if he is covered by a relevant resolution.

(5) A relevant resolution is a statutory resolution by a resolution body stating that a specified employee or a class of employees to which he belongs may be a member.

(6) These are resolution bodies-

Agreements to enable employees of non-Scheme employers to be members ("admission agreements").

Substituted (SI1999/3438)

5.-(1) An administering authority 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) An admission agreement may provide that a period of employment by the admission body before the date of the agreement counts as membership of the Scheme (or does so for some purposes).

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

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

(6) When an administering authority make an admission agreement, they must immediately inform the Secretary of State of the admission body's name and the date the agreement takes effect.

(6A) An administering authority 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.(SI1999/1212)

(7) An administering authority and an admission body may make an admission agreement despite the fact that they do not exercise their functions in areas which overlap or adjoin each other.

(8) These are admission bodies-

(9) But the governors or managers of a voluntary school do not count as a body within paragraph (8)(a) to (c) and a body only falls within paragraph (8)(d)(iii) 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.

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

5.  -     (1) An administering authority 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-

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

(c) a body representative-

(d) the Housing Corporation;

(e) Housing for Wales;

(f) the Commission for the New Towns;

(g) a company for the time being subject to the influence of a local authority as described in section 69 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989;

(h) a body which-

    (4) But the governors or managers of a voluntary school do not count as a body within paragraph (3)(a) or (b) and a body is only within paragraph (3)(c)(iii) 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 Secretary of State thinks fit and he 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 paragraph (3)(b) that the Scheme employer who provides funding (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-

    (8) Where a transferor Scheme employer and a transferee admission body undertake to meet the requirements of paragraph (7), an administering authority 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 consider appropriate.

    (11) When an administering authority make an admission agreement, they must promptly inform the Secretary of State 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 Scheme employer.

    (12) An administering authority 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) An administering authority and an admission body may make an admission agreement despite the fact that they do not exercise their functions or provide services or assets in areas which overlap or adjoin each other.

    (14) Any question which may arise between the administering authority 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 Secretary of State.

    (15) 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 Act 1993) other than where the accrual of benefits under that pension scheme would not affect approval of the Scheme as an approved scheme.

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

    (17) In this regulation, regulation 6 and Schedule 2A (where applicable)-

(b) "best value arrangement" means a contract or other arrangement made with a transferor Scheme 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 Scheme employer;

(c) "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 best value arrangement actuarially assessed to the satisfaction of the administering authority and the transferor Scheme employer;

(d) "local authority" for the purposes of paragraph (3)(c) and (g) includes the Greater London Authority;

(e) "non-associated admission body" means a body described in-

Further restrictions on eligibility

6.-(1) If a person's employment entitles him to belong to another statutory pension scheme, that employment does not entitle him to be a member, unless that other scheme was made under section 7 of the Superannuation Act 1972.

(2) A statutory pension scheme is an occupational pension scheme provided by or under an enactment (including a local Act).

(2A) A person who is not eligible for membership of a Teachers scheme because of the provisions of regulation B4(2) of the Teachers' Pensions Regulations 1997 (re-employed teachers) is not entitled to be a member.(SI1999/1212)

(3) A person may not become a member after his 65th birthday unless-

(4) The permitted maximum for a Class A member is 40 years.

(5) The permitted maximum for a Class B member or a Class C member is the sum of-

or, if less, 45 years.

(6) A permitted late member is a person to whom-

has become payable, or who is entitled to or has received relevant compensation.

(7) Relevant compensation is compensation which-

(8) If a person has been entitled to an ill-health pension calculated by reference to an enhanced membership period, that period is counted as part of his total membership for paragraphs (3) (4) (SI1998/1238) and (5).

(9) Part-time employment as a member of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of the Fire Services Act 1947 on terms under which the employee is or may be required to engage in fire fighting does not entitle the employee to be a member of the Scheme.

(10) (SI1999/3438) A person who is a member and is an employee of a transferee admission body is treated as leaving a local government employment when he ceases to be employed in connection with-

Joining and leaving the Scheme

Joining the Scheme

7.-(1) A person who wishes to become an active member must apply in writing to his employer or future employer.

(2) An eligible person who applies before he begins his employment becomes a member when his employment begins unless he applies to join later.

(3) An eligible employee who applies becomes a member on the first day of the first payment period following the application.

(4) A payment period is a period of service to which the employee's wages or salary payment relate.

(5) An employee is deemed to have applied to become a member, unless he notified his employer in writing that he did not wish to do so-

(6) But paragraph (5) does not apply-

(7) An application for membership may be withdrawn before membership begins.

(8) A former active member may reapply for such membership.

(9) But a person who has given more than one notification under regulation 8 may only reapply again if-

Leaving the Scheme.

8.-(1) A person may leave the Scheme if he wishes and stops being a member if he stops being eligible for membership.

(2) A person who wishes to leave the Scheme must notify his employer in writing.

(3) A member who gives such a notification stops being a member from the date the notification specifies.

(4) But, if a date earlier than the notification or no date is specified, he stops being a member at the end of the payment period during which the notification is given.

(5) Where notification is given by a person before he has been a member for three months, he must be treated as not having been a member in that period.