The Pensions Board publishes on-the-spot fines checklist

Wednesday 12 September 2007: The Pensions Board has today published Trustee and Employer Checklists, in relation to the new on-the-spot fine regime, being commenced on 17 September 2007. The fine for each offence is €2,000.

The checklists are intended to help trustees and employers ensure they do not contravene any of the specified provisions in the Pensions Act which would render them liable to a fine from The Pensions Board. The specified contraventions include breaches of Disclosure of Information Regulations, failure to respond to a request by The Pensions Board for information and failure to update scheme registration details.

Brendan Kennedy, The Pensions Board CEO, said: “Given the protracted nature of bringing cases to court we welcome an alternative means of ensuring that scheme trustees and employers’ comply with their statutory obligations. The new on-the-spot fines will enhance the Board’s capacity to enforce pension rules and regulations. The checklists will help scheme trustees and employers to check their levels of compliance. If in doubt they should contact their advisors.”

The on-the-spot fine, provides an alternative to the prosecution of certain offences, under the Pensions Act. Under the fines provisions, The Pensions Board may notify a person in writing that it is alleged that an offence has been committed and that, if within 21 days of the notice, the person has remedied the offence to the satisfaction of The Pensions Board and paid the appropriate fine, a prosecution will not be instituted.

Download a pdf of the Trustee and Employer Checklists (318KB).

To view and print pdf files, a viewer program called Acrobat Reader is required. A free copy of Adobe Reader can be downloaded from the Adobe website.


-ENDS-

For further information:

David Malone
Head of Information Services
The Pensions Board Tel (01) 613 1900

Andrew Nugent
Assistant Head of Information Services
The Pensions Board Tel (01) 613 1900

Jackie Gallagher
Q4 Public Relations Tel (01) 475 1444/ (087) 2371838

Notes:

About The Pensions Board
The Pensions Board is the statutory body set up to regulate occupational pension schemes and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) and to advise the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, and through him, the Government, on overall pension policy development. www.pensionsboard.ie

Introduction of on-the-spot fines
The introduction of the on-the-spot fine regime as an alternative to prosecution is provided under Section 39 of the 2006 Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Act. Section 39 was amended by Section 37 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007 to set out specifically which contraventions of the Act would be liable to on-the-spot fines. Regulations signed by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs provide for the commencement of the fines regime, on 17 September 2007.

 
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