Contract-based scheme meaning

The employer and its advisers ought to reflect on the following matters: Preparatory steps From the employer, gather: a copy of the departing employee’s latest employment contract and any other documents setting out contractual terms (note: these might sit within a staff handbook) particulars of the employee’s contractual benefits pertinent details about the employee’s pension entitlements information on any shares/share options held by the employee; review the Articles of Association, any relevant shareholder agreement, and share scheme documentation. See also Shares and share options below Status of negotiations Will discussions occur directly between the parties, or via their respective legal advisers? How robust is the employer’s bargaining position? How credible are the employee’s existing or potential claims? For any dismissal, is there a fair reason and has a fair procedure been followed? Is the employer in repudiatory breach? What is the employer initially...

The auto-enrolment duty Since 1 October 2012, at their staging date employers must auto‑enrol eligible jobholders into a qualifying pension scheme, allow opt‑outs, pay minimum contributions, and re‑enrol every three years. They also had to identify their staging date, workers, and scheme. Identifying the staging date PAYE 120,000+: from 1 October 2012. Under 120,000: 1 Nov 2012 to 1 Apr 2017. PAYE first payable Apr 2012–Sep 2017: 1 May 2017 to 1 Feb 2018. On/after 1 Oct 2017: first worker’s start date. DB or hybrid schemes could defer to 1 Oct 2017. Staging could be moved, and auto‑enrolment postponed up to three months. Who needs to be enrolled automatically? Eligible jobholders work (or ordinarily work) in Great Britain under a worker’s contract, are 22 to under State Pension age, and have qualifying earnings above the earnings trigger. What type of pension scheme can be used? ...

Initial enquiries of the seller’s lawyers-sample questions When advising a prospective buyer of a site or scheme, the process begins with an initial read-through of the construction pack supplied. Issues to be verified are set out in Checklist: Construction due diligence for property purchase-initial review of construction package-checklist. After that first sweep of the papers, the next stage is to put initial enquiries to the seller’s solicitors to secure details not evident from the material provided. This note sets out illustrative questions that might follow the initial document review. Plainly, what is asked will turn on the documents and information the seller has given, and the list must be adapted to fit the particular context. In many cases, only copies of executed building contracts and professional appointments are produced and, consequently, there is further, less obvious information that must be sourced in order to advise a purchaser properly. The questions are grouped into general enquiries and specific enquiries. Once those first enquiries have gone in, a comprehensive review of...

Procurement process flowchart This Procurement process flowchart outlines the sequence a procurement might follow, alongside the factors to weigh up so a clear and appropriate procurement route is observed. It further highlights the Precedents on hand to support you throughout the procurement journey. The Flowchart serves as an illustrative example rather than a conclusive guide. Organisations can, of course, operate quite distinct procedures; nevertheless, it offers a useful baseline or point of reference. Any contract value amounts shown are presented purely as examples for illustrative purposes only here...

This flow diagram outlines the steps for submitting a compensation event claim seeking extra time to finish the works and/or extra payment under the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract...

In this issue: Electricity and gas market regulation and licensing Networks and grid connections Renewable energy Capacity Market, balancing services and system flexibility Air emissions, efficiency and climate change International energy Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Energy resources on Lexis+® Electricity and gas market regulation and licensing DESNZ has opened a consultation to strengthen Energy Ombudsman (EO) powers. It will concentrate on complaints from domestic energy suppliers, small enterprise complaints against non-domestic suppliers, and heat network complaints. Electricity and gas networks and third-party intermediaries will instead be consulted on separately. The plans include shortening the escalation period for complaints from eight to four weeks, allowing automatic compensation where EO decisions are not put into effect promptly, and granting the EO a statutory designation. DESNZ has also stated that Ofgem will regulate third‑party intermediaries, including energy brokers and price comparison sites, which have previously operated...

In this edition: Employment contract Pay Protected characteristics Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc) Prohibited conduct protection at work Equality of terms (equal pay) Employment Appeal Tribunal Governance and regulatory Immigration Dates for your diary Trackers New Q&As Employment resources on Lexis+® Daily and weekly news alerts Employment contract UKSC upholds claimants’ appeal and restores injunction in Tesco ‘fire and rehire’ case In Tesco Stores Ltd v Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) [2024] UKSC 28, Tesco moved to end employees’ contracts to remove their ‘retained pay’—a contractual financial entitlement accepted as permanent—and to offer re-engagement on new terms excluding that pay. Working with the union, USDAW, several employees obtained a High Court injunction restraining Tesco from dismissing them in order to take away the retained pay entitlement. The Court of Appeal, however, allowed Tesco’s appeal against that order. The Supreme Court has since backed the claimants’ appeal and...

In this issue: Contract law Building safety Litigation Arbitration Tax for construction lawyers Standard form contracts Construction industry news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Construction trackers Contract law Employer deemed out of time in issuing a notification on the Monday after a Sunday deadline (My Contracts v 74 Hamilton Terrace) In My Contracts Ltd v 74 Hamilton Terrace Freehold Ltd [2024] EWHC 2896 (TCC), the TCC issued a declaration at the contractor’s request concerning the construction of a clause that imposed a deadline for the employer to notify costs for which the contractor was responsible. The court concluded the employer missed the deadline by serving the notice on the Monday immediately after the final day for service, which had fallen on a Sunday. Central to the decision was that the clause made no provision for the period to be calculated by reference to ‘Business Days’. See News Analysis: Employer...

This Practice Note sets out the principal steps for properly bringing to an end a defined contribution (DC) occupational pension scheme—also described as a money purchase occupational pension arrangement or a trust-based defined contribution plan. Throughout this Practice Note, this type of arrangement is termed a ‘DC scheme’. The guidance applies across a range of DC schemes, including trusts that sit outside the authorised master trust framework and small self-administered pension schemes (SSASs), although the latter may, in certain cases, be excluded from particular statutory obligations or requirements. This Practice Note does not cover the winding-up of any: an ‘authorised master trust’ under the Pension Schemes Act 2017 (PSA 2017)—for further detailed information, please see Practice Note: The authorisation and supervisory regime for master trusts, contract-based DC arrangements (eg group personal pension arrangements)—for further details and guidance, see Practice Note: Winding up of personal pension schemes Statute makes distinct and specific provision for hybrid schemes (combining defined benefit (DB) and DC...

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/3113), as amended, implement Directive 2012/19/EU (recast WEEE Directive) and replace the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/3289). Rooted in the principle of ‘extended producer responsibility’, they place obligations on producers to manage the environmental impacts of their products, particularly at the ‘end of their life’ when they become waste. Producer compliance schemes Under WEEE 2013, reg 14, any producer placing five tonnes or more of EEE on the UK market in a year must join a Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS). A PCS supports compliance and arranges for collected WEEE to be sent to an Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (AATF) or an Approved Exporter (AE) for treatment in the UK or overseas. For further details on producers’ duties, see Practice Note: WEEE—producer obligations. Applications for approval A PCS must be approved by the Environment Agency (EA) for applicants based in England, and by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) for applicants based in Wales...

What is the Pensions Advice Allowance? Following consultation in 2016/17, the government brought in, from 6 April 2017, the Pensions Advice Allowance. It enables eligible pension scheme members to withdraw a fixed sum from their pension pot tax-free to cover holistic retirement advice. At the member’s instruction, the scheme may therefore reduce the value of the member’s pot by the advice fee and pay the funds straight to the member’s adviser. This measure stemmed from the Financial Advice Market Review, which highlighted an advice gap affecting people who require retirement planning support but cannot meet the cost from net-of-tax income or savings. It is available in addition to other existing advice allowances and payment routes for advice. These include adviser charging, which does not permit pension monies to be used to fund holistic retirement advice. For further details, see Other types of pensions advice measures below. The government’s aim is to help those preparing for retirement to use the Pensions Advice Allowance to fund holistic...

In the Employment Tribunals Case number: [ Insert case number ] Between: [ Insert name of claimant ] (Claimant) and [ Insert name of respondent ] (Respondent) Claimant's schedule of loss 1. Details Net basic pay per week (after deductions): £[ Insert amount ] Respondent’s yearly pension contributions/annual pension entitlement: [ [ Insert amount, e.g. £x ] OR [ Insert details of pension scheme, e.g. 1/80 final salary scheme with related lump sum ] ] Yearly value of bonus/other employment perks: £[ Insert amount ] Notice period under the contract: [ Insert period, e.g. x weeks or x months ] Claimant’s date of birth: [ Insert date ] Date employment ended: [ [ Insert date ] ] Age at termination: [ [ Insert age ] ] 2. ...

ARCHIVED: This archived precedent comprises a set of recitals for a deed establishing a trust-based pension scheme. The recitals therefore serve to set out the context of, and rationale for, an agreement. Such recitals are usually not considered legally binding. This precedent is not maintained...

These notes and specimen documents make up an automatic enrolment (AE) pack created to assist employers—including small and micro-employers—in meeting the duty to enrol employees into an AE scheme... (A) Notes about AE (i) the statutory obligation (ii) financial thresholds and limits (iii) the statutory and other key terms (B) Documents (i) letters (ii) notices (iii) the employment contract—sample pension clauses AE scheme providers generally issue the core letters and notices, though not always everything required in every relevant situation, and typically none where an employer fulfils the AE duty by using a qualifying pension scheme that is not an automatic enrolment pension scheme... (A) Notes about AE 1 The statutory obligation The primary legal provisions are found in Part 1 of the Pensions Act 2008 (PenA 2008) and the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Automatic Enrolment) Regulations 2010, SI 2010/772, as later...

Disability discrimination Under section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010) and EqA 2010, Sch 1, Pt 1, a diagnosis of cancer is treated, without further proof, as a disability for EqA 2010 purposes. See Practice Note: Disability. Attention must be given to the various forms of discrimination and other banned conduct contained in EqA 2010, as set out within that legislation and provisions therein. See the part of Practice Note: Disability discrimination headed ‘The basic types of discrimination and other prohibited conduct’, together with the fuller Practice Notes cited there and cross-referred within that section. For EqA 2010 purposes, a ‘dismissal’ also covers situations where an employee’s employment ends (and is not immediately renewed on identical terms) because a particular period has run out, or a particular event has happened, or a particular circumstance has arisen; this includes the ending of fixed-term contracts (EqA 2010, s 39(7)–(8)). Accordingly, the requirement to make reasonable adjustments binds employers when they are considering dismissing an employee; that is, dismissal will...

This Q&A considers whether This Q&A explores whether, when a company is planning multiple share buybacks, it must put in place distinct share buyback contracts, each addressing a single intended buyback, or whether a single, overarching share buyback contract may instead cover all the intended buybacks, with each completing on a separate date. It proceeds on the basis that the company concerned is a private company limited by shares proposing to buy back shares off-market and that the contemplated buyback is neither for the purposes of, nor pursuant to, an employees’ share scheme within the meaning of section 1166 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006)...

Yes, bank holidays are excluded when calculating the time period in an adjudication under the Scheme for Construction Contracts. The Scheme for Construction Contracts (the Scheme) sets out certain default rules governing the entitlement to start, and the practical management of, an adjudication process. Under section 108(5) of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (HGCRA 1996), the Scheme’s terms are read into a construction contract where it omits, or conflicts with, any of the obligations in subsections 108(1) to (4)...