General eligibility for membership: employees of Scheme employers etc.

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

    (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.

Agreements to enable employees of non-Scheme employers to be members ("admission agreements")
     4.  - (SI2000/199) (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-

(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 Scheme employer for the body and the Scheme 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 Scheme employer or otherwise; or

(ii) is approved by the Scottish Ministers for the purpose of admission to the Scheme;



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

(c) a body representative-



(i) of local authorities;

(ii) of local authorities and officers of local authorities;

(iii) of officers of local authorities; or

(iv) of Scheme employers;



(d) a voluntary organisation engaged in the provision of services under-



(i) Part III of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978;

(ii) Part III of the National Assistance Act 1948;

(iii) the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1958;

(iv) the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984; or

(v) section 14 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968;



(e) a body which exercises the function referred to in a relevant arrangement.

    (4) Approval under paragraph (3)(a)(ii) may be subject to such conditions as the Scottish Ministers think fit and they may withdraw approval at any time if such conditions are not met.

    (5) 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.

    (6) In the case of an admission agreement with a transferee admission body-

(a) the transferor Scheme employer, if not also the administering authority, must be a party to the admission agreement;

(b) only those employees of the transferee admission body who are employed in connection with the function referred to in a relevant arrangement are eligible to be members of the Scheme;

(c) it 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 2A.

    (7) Where a transferor Scheme employer and a transferee admission body undertake to meet the requirements of paragraph (6), 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.

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

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

    (10) When an administering authority make an admission agreement, they must promptly inform the Scottish Ministers 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.

    (11) 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.

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

    (13) 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 Scottish Ministers.

    (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 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 an active member in the same way as if the body were a Scheme employer.

    (16) In this regulation, regulation 5 and Schedule 2A (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 a relevant arrangement actuarially assessed to the satisfaction of the administering authority and the transferor Scheme employer;

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



(i) paragraph (3)(a)(ii); or

(ii) paragraph (3)(b) where, at the date that the admission agreement is made, the total contribution from any one or more Scheme employers to its funds equals less than 50% of funding contributed by third parties;



(d) "relevant 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;

(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) "transferee admission body" means an admission body described in paragraph (3)(e); and

(g) "transferor Scheme employer" means an authority or body which is a Scheme employer.

(SI2000/199)

4.  - (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.

    (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-

(a) a body which provides a public service in the United Kingdom otherwise than for the purposes of gain;

(b) a body to the funds of which any local authority contribute;

(c) a body to which any grant is made out of money provided by Parliament;

(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;



(e) a voluntary organisation engaged in the provision of services under-



(i) Part III of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978;

(ii) Part III of the National Assistance Act 1948;

(iii) the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1958;

(iv) the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984; or

(v) section 14 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.

    (9) However, a body falls within paragraph (8)(d)(iii) only 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. (SI2000/199)

Further restrictions on eligibility
     5.  - (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 B5(5) of the Teachers' Superannuation (Scotland) Regulations 1992 (re-employed teachers) is not entitled to be a member. (SI2000/199)

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

(a) his total membership does not exceed his permitted maximum; and

(b) he is a permitted late member. (SI2000/199)

    (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-

(a) his total membership before he attained 60 or, if less, 40 years, and

(b) his total membership since he attained 60,

or, if less, 45 years.

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

(a) a pension which must be the subject of a policy formulated under regulation 110 (statements of policy concerning abatement of retirement pensions in new employment);

(b) an ill-health grant under regulation 26(3) or an ill-health retirement grant under regulation E4 of the 1987 Regulations or regulation E21 of the 1974 Regulations; or

(c) a short service grant under the Benefits Regulations,

has become payable or who is entitled to or has received relevant compensation. (SI2000/199)

    (7) Relevant compensation is compensation which-

(a) is payable under any enactment for loss of employment or loss or reduction of employment benefits attributable to an enactment; and

(b) is liable to be reduced or suspended by reason of the person to whom it is payable entering employment with a Scheme employer, in the same way 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. (SI2000/199)

    (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) (SI2000/199) 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) 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 the function referred to in a relevant arrangement. (SI2000/199)

(a) before his employment began; or

(b) if he only became eligible to be a member later, before the date he became eligible.

    (6) Paragraph (5) does not apply to-

(a) casual employees; or

(b) former members who opted to leave the Scheme by a notification under regulation 7.

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

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

    (9) Notwithstanding paragraph (8), a person who has given more than one notification under regulation 7 may reapply again only if-

(a) his employer or future employer consents;

(b) he is beginning a new employment with a new employing authority and he reapplies before he has been employed for three months; or

(c) he is an individual who during any period has been eligible to be a member but has instead made contributions to a personal pension scheme and has suffered loss as a result of a contravention which is actionable under section 62 of the Financial Services Act 1986 (actions for damages in respect of contravention of rules etc. made under the Act).

Leaving the Scheme
     7.  - (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) However, 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 one month, he must be treated as not having been a member in that period.