
1 

(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Occupational Pension Schemes (Trustees' Knowledge and Understanding) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 and shall come into operation on 6th April 2006.
(2) In these Regulations “the Order” means the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005.
2 

(1) The requirements imposed by Article 224(3) and (4) of the Order (requirement for knowledge and understanding: individual trustees) shall not apply to trustees of schemes with fewer than 12 members where all the members are trustees of the scheme and either—
(a) the provisions of the scheme provide that all decisions which fall to be made by the trustees are made by the unanimous agreement of the trustees who are members of the scheme, or
(b) the scheme has a trustee who is independent in relation to the scheme for the purposes of Article 23 of the 1995 Order (power to appoint independent trustees), and is registered in the register maintained by the Regulator in accordance with regulations made under paragraph (4) of that Article.
(2) The requirements imposed by Article 225(3) and (5) of the Order (requirement for knowledge and understanding: corporate trustees) shall not apply to trustees of schemes with fewer than 12 members where a company is a trustee of the scheme and all of the members of the scheme are directors of the company and either—
(a) the provisions of the scheme provide that all decisions made by the company in its capacity as trustee are made by the unanimous agreement of all the directors who are members of the scheme, or
(b) one of the directors is a trustee who is independent in relation to the scheme for the purposes of Article 23 of the 1995 Order and is registered in the register maintained by the Regulator in accordance with regulations made under paragraph (4) of that Article.
3 
Article 224(3) and (4) of the Order shall not apply to any individual who is a trustee of a relevant scheme for a period of six months beginning with the date of his appointment as such a trustee, unless—
(a) he is an independent trustee who meets the requirements of Article 23(1) of the 1995 Order, or
(b) he was appointed as a consequence of holding himself out as having expertise in any of the matters listed in Article 224(4) of the Order or in any regulations made under paragraph (4)(c) of that Article.
4 
Article 225(3) and (5) of the Order shall not apply to any individual who exercises any function which a company has as trustee of a relevant scheme, for a period of six months beginning with the date of his appointment to the company, unless—
(a) he is an independent trustee who meets the requirements of Article 23(1) of the 1995 Order, or
(b) he was appointed as a consequence of holding himself out as having expertise in any of the matters listed in Article 225(5) of the Order or in any regulations made under paragraph (5)(c) of that Article.
Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department for Social Development on 13th March 2006.
John O'Neill
A senior officer of the
Department for Social Development
