Minor amendments to the stakeholder pension scheme regulations were laid in Parliament today by Pensions Minister Jeff Rooker after requests by pension providers.

Stakeholder pension schemes will be available to the public from 6th April 2001, providing a new pension option for millions of people on moderate earnings who cannot join an occupational pension scheme.

Announcing the amendments, Mr Rooker said: "The government promised to introduce stakeholder pensions within this Parliament and we are firmly on track for their successful implementation in April 2001. The new schemes will make a real difference to the lives of millions of tomorrow's pensioners.

"We consulted extensively on the details of the stakeholder pension regulations before they were laid and we have continued to listen to the views of those involved in setting up schemes.

"We set out last year the areas where we propose to make some changes to the regulations. These amendments begin to implement the changes and, in particular, we have brought in two changes that concern the registration of schemes. The changes will allow schemes that want to take advantage of the revised rules to register with Opra as soon as the regulations come into force on 14 February 2001. The further changes we plan to make to the regulations will be brought in shortly.

"The main changes in these amending regulations are:

• to permit contract-based stakeholder schemes to apply the same membership restrictions as are presently permitted for trust-based schemes;
  
  
• to allow the authorised corporate director of an open-ended investment company to act as a stakeholder scheme manager (provided they have the appropriate authorisation from the Financial Services Authority).

1. The regulations SI 2000/104 are available on the internet at: www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk. Printed copies are available from the Stationery Office.
   
   
2. The regulations amend the Stakeholder Pension Scheme Regulations 2000 (SI 2000/1403), which were laid before Parliament on 25th May 2000.
   
   
3. The main proposed changes to the regulations were announced in a letter from DSS officials to the Association of British Insurers and to the Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds, on 2nd November 2000. The regulations laid today make two main changes which directly affect the registration of stakeholder pension schemes, to allow schemes to register under the new rules as soon as possible. A further set of changes to the regulations will be laid shortly.
   
   
4. The main changes in these regulations are:

• to permit contract-based stakeholder pension schemes (those run by an authorised scheme manager) to restrict membership by reference to:
  
  
• employment with a particular employer, or in a particular trade or profession;
  
  or
  
  
• membership of a particular organisation;
  to permit the authorised corporate director of an open-ended investment company to act as a stakeholder scheme manager.
  

5. The change to the regulations on membership restrictions permit contract-based schemes to adopt the same restrictions as trust-based schemes. No stakeholder pension schemes can restrict their membership on the basis of financial status or level of contributions.
   
   
6. Stakeholder pension schemes have been able to register with the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority since 2nd October 2000. As at 23 January 2001, 26 schemes have already registered.
   
   
7. The main further changes to the regulations (as announced in the letter of 2nd November) are:

• to replace the requirement to disclose the monetary amount of charges taken from each scheme member with a requirement to disclose the percentage rate of charges (with the intention of reintroducing the requirement to show money charges in three years' time);
  
  
• to allow schemes to set different statement years for different members of the scheme (for the purposes of issuing annual statements to members);
  
  
• to only require schemes to accept contributions in the form of cheques, standing orders and direct debit/credit (giving them the option of declining contributions in other forms);
  
  
• to clarify the treatment of dealing costs in collective investment schemes;
  
  
• possible changes to ensure members of trust-based schemes receive the same pre-sale information and have the same cancellation rights as members of contract-based schemes;
  
  
• to modify the provisions governing the appointment and role of the reporting accountant in schemes.

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