HC Deb 12 March 1996 vol 273 cc593-4W
Mr. Gordon Prentice

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 21 February,Official Report, column 147, what account was taken of the impact on businesses in deciding not to make a compliance cost assessment for the Occupational Pension Schemes (Equal Treatment) Regulations. [18383]

Mr. Heald

The Occupational Pension Schemes (Equal Treatment) Regulations 1995 are concerned with the detailed application of existing equal treatment requirements which derive from article 119 of the treaty of Rome and were incorporated into domestic legislation by sections 62 to 66 of the Pensions Act 1995. The compliance cost assessment produced in April 1995 with the then Pensions Bill, explained that article 119 had direct effect in member states and any impact on industry arose directly from it. The impact of article 119 and clarificatory rulings was therefore excluded from that CCA.

However, as my hon. Friend the Member for Wanstead and Woodford (Mr. Arbuthnot) explained during the passage of the Bill, the European Court of Justice ruled that member states of the European Community may subject claims to equal treatment in occupational pensions to a domestic time limit. The Equal Treatment Regulations have the effect of applying the time limits for claims under the Equal Pay Act 1970 to claims for equal treatment in occupational pensions schemes. This means that claims must be brought within six months of leaving the relevant employment. Successful claims for retrospective access to pension schemes are limited to a maximum two-year period for any backdated award.

Rulings of the ECJ have also recognised certain exceptions from the equal treatments requirements. Accordingly, the regulations also make detailed provision as to the circumstances in which these exceptions may be relied upon. These provisions have significantly reduced the financial and administrative effect of the ECJ rulings on pension schemes and employers.

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