Debate contribution: Occupational Pension Schemes (Governance and Registration) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024
Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on .
- MLA
- Mr Gordon Lyons
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 10 June 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Occupational Pension Schemes (Governance and Registration) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4494887
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I beg to move
This rule is the replacement for the original regulations, which came into operation on 1 October 2022. The rule integrates into pensions law provisions of the Investment Consultancy and Fiduciary Management Market Investigation Order 2019, which was made by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). It also enables the Pensions Regulator to oversee compliance by trustees of relevant pension schemes to allow for effective monitoring and enforcement. In broad terms, investment consultancy is the provision of advice to trustees on investment strategy and related matters. Fiduciary management involves the delegation by trustees of some investment decisions to advisers. The CMA made a number of recommendations, including a recommendation for legislation to enable the Pensions Regulator to oversee the duties on trustees to allow for effective enforcement. The rule brings into law various duties placed on trustees in defined benefit and defined contribution occupational pension schemes. The regulations primarily amend the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 to impose duties on trustees of relevant trust schemes in connection with the provision of fiduciary management schemes by fiduciary management providers. Trustees of occupational pension schemes are required to set objectives for persons who provide them with investment consultancy services, review those objectives at intervals of no more than three years and review annually the performance of providers against the objectives. Setting objectives enables trustees to monitor the performance of their advisers and get better value for money in the long term. Trustees are also required to carry out a qualifying tender process when continuing to use existing fiduciary management providers, or when appointing new ones, if the scheme meets the asset management threshold. The threshold is met when fiduciary managers, who are covered by the regulations, manage 20% or more of the in-scope assets. The regulations also set out what the qualifying tender process is and when it must be carried out. Those duties encourage trustees to become more engaged with the way in which services are bought, monitored and evaluated or to consider more efficient consolidation options. In turn, that leads to better outcomes for scheme members and employer sponsors of schemes. Specific enforcement powers are given to the Pensions Regulator in connection with those duties. For example, a process is set out whereby the regulator may issue a compliance notice or third-party compliance notice if:
"it is of the opinion that the person is not complying, or has not complied, with"
the relevant provision. The regulations also amend regulation 3 of the Register of Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 so as to require certain information about investment consultancy providers and fiduciary management providers to be included in the scheme's return, among other things. Trustees are required to provide the relevant detail about each of their fiduciary management providers and about whether the trustees carried out a qualifying tender process. If they did not carry out such a process for that provider, the trustees have to state why it was not carried out. Trustees are also required to confirm relevant details of each of their investment consultancy providers and of whether the trustees have set and reviewed the objectives and reviewed the performance of the provider. If they have not done that, they are required to confirm why. The overall aim of the remedies is to encourage trustees to engage better and to monitor the value for money of the services that they use. Better oversight of the measures should also have a positive impact on defined-contribution members' pots and defined benefit funding shortfalls.
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am grateful to the Deputy Chairperson of the Committee, and to the Committee, for their support. I commend the motion to the House.
623 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.69).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.69 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:37 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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