§ The Minister for Pensions (Malcolm Wicks)Today we have published proposals to amend the statutory priority order when a defined benefit pension scheme subject to the minimum funding requirement is wound up and draft regulations to bring these proposals into effect.
The draft regulations are intended to ensure that, where there are insufficient assets to meet all liabilities, they are shared as fairly as possible between non-pensioner and pensioner scheme members.
As outlined in "Action on Occupational Pensions" the degree of protection offered by the new priority order reflects the length of time a member has been contributing to a scheme and also gives priority to the rights of non-pensioners over the future indexation of pensions in payment.
We are consulting on the draft regulations and proposed new priority order and should welcome views on both by 3 December 2003. We aim to lay these regulations by early 2004 so that they come into force as soon as practicable.