Prescribed scheme meaning

THIS CHECKLIST APPLIES TO MULTI-EMPLOYER DEFINED BENEFIT OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES General For an employer leaving an underfunded defined benefit occupational scheme, apportionment arrangements provide an option other than paying an s 75 debt in full when an employment-cessation event occurs. There are three forms of apportionment arrangement: scheme apportionment arrangement (SAA) regulated apportionment arrangement (RAA) flexible apportionment arrangement (FAA) The statutory requirements for apportionment are prescribed in the Employer Debt Regs, SI 2005/678, regs 6B, 6E and 7A, together with the definitions in reg 2(1). The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has produced guidance to help employers and trustees understand the available approaches for addressing s 75 debts, including apportionment arrangements. If an apportionment arrangement could adversely affect a scheme’s ability to meet its pension liabilities, the exiting employer and the remaining employers should consider seeking clearance from TPR...

In this issue: Social housing Education Planning Local government finance Public procurement Governance Healthcare Social care Licensing Environmental law and climate change LexTalk®Local Government: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Social housing Local authority successful in Court of Appeal on suitability of accommodation offered in performance of prevention duty (Fatolahzadeh v LB of Barnet) Fatolahzadeh v LB of Barnet saw Genevieve Screeche-Powell represent the council, which prevailed in resisting a Housing Act 1996 (HA 1996), section 204 appeal pursued by a homeless applicant. Two central issues of principle arose: (i) whether Parliament intended that an alleged non-compliance with the ‘new’ HA 1996, s 189A duties should automatically vitiate any later decision taken to meet the duty to secure suitable accommodation; and (ii) the extent to which the section 202 review procedure can rectify asserted shortcomings. This marks the first occasion on which the Court...

Lowe v The Governors of Sutton’s Hospital In Charterhouse [2025] EWCA Civ 857 What are the practical implications of this case? The tenancy deposit regime is not elegantly drafted and has prompted a wave of technical litigation. This judgment offers useful clarity on how courts approach imperfect landlord compliance: A prescribed information certificate containing an inaccuracy should be interpreted as any statutory notice. If a reasonable recipient would grasp the correct details from it, the legislative requirements are treated as satisfied. The absence of a signature on the prescribed information certificate did not invalidate it. Here, the certificate was sent with a covering letter signed by the landlord’s agent; read together, the latter authenticated the former for the purposes of the statutory scheme. What was the background? In January 2010, C entered a contractual fixed-term tenancy of a residential flat within the Charterhouse complex in central London, paying a £3,300 deposit at the outset. Owing to an alteration in the...

In this issue: Social housing Children's social care Education Planning Highways Public procurement Governance Local government finance Adult social care Healthcare Licensing Environmental law and climate change Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Social housing Social housing To be or not to be… the recurring question of when a homelessness application is an application at all (R (Lyrae) v Somerset Council) In R (Lyrae) v Somerset Council, the High Court endorsed the Court of Appeal’s dicta in Rikha Begum—picked up and used in Minott and Ivory—on how to treat a subsequent ‘fresh’ homelessness approach. The analysis comprises two steps. First (stage one), decide whether the later approach counts as an application at all; the only time the answer is ‘no’ is where it rests on exactly the same factual matrix as the earlier one, ignoring fanciful assertions and insignificant details. Secondly (stage two), if it...

A limited liability partnership (LLP) A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a corporate body established under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 (LLPA 2000). Most rules governing LLPs derive from modified company law rather than partnership law (see Practice Note: The nature of a limited liability partnership and its legal framework). The requirements for incorporation are prescribed in the LLPA 2000 and the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006), as adapted by the Limited Liability Partnerships (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2009, SI 2009/1804 (LLP (Application of CA 2006) Regs 2009). The method for forming an LLP closely mirrors the procedure for company incorporation...

Deposits requested by landlords and letting agents for certain residential tenancies must be safeguarded by a tenancy deposit scheme (TDS), whether insurance-based or custodial. This Practice Note outlines the purpose of the deposit legislation, the obligations on landlords, the financial penalties for non-compliance, and the limits on regaining possession. The deposit regime All deposits taken by landlords for residential assured tenancies (ATs) in England must be protected under a TDS. Transitional provisions exempt tenancies that were non-shorthold ATs before 1 May 2026. The parties cannot contract out of these duties. There are two forms of TDS: insurance-based schemes and custodial schemes. They are intended to: allow tenants to recover all or part of their deposit when they are entitled to it and make any disputes easier to resolve encourage landlords and tenants to agree clearly from the outset on the property's condition so that a landlord is not left out of pocket when the tenancy expires and the tenant leaves ...

Contracting-out on a salary-related basis (also known as defined benefit (DB) contracting-out) was abolished on 6 April 2016. Before abolition, members of contracted-out salary-related (COSR) schemes could have built up one of two forms of contracted-out entitlement. In this Practice Note, these are collectively described as ‘contracted-out salary-related rights’ or, in short, ‘COSR rights’. Guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs), being contracted-out rights built up before 6 April 1997 Section 9(2B) rights (also called post-1997 contracted-out salary-related rights or post-1997 COSR rights), being contracted-out rights built up between 6 April 1997 and 5 April 2016 The framework for transferring COSR rights is prescribed by the Contracting-out (Transfer and Transfer Payment) Regulations 1996, SI 1996/1462 (the Contracting-out Transfer Regulations). HMRC has issued guidance on transferring COSR rights. This Practice Note addresses transfers carried out after the end of DB contracting-out, namely on and from 6 April 2016. For material on transfers of COSR rights made prior to the abolition of DB contracting-out, see Practice...

Section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004) sets out the obligations on landlords who take a deposit in relation to an assured shorthold tenancy. Every deposit must be handled in line with an authorised scheme (HA 2004, s 213(1)), and the scheme’s initial requirements must be met within a period of 30 days from receipt of the deposit (HA 2004, s 213(3))...

This Q&A This Q&A considers how the Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004) applies to assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs) governed by the Housing Act 1988 (HA 1988). In brief, when a landlord takes a deposit for an AST, two actions are required within 30 days of receiving the funds. First, the initial requirements of an authorised tenancy deposit scheme must be satisfied in full (HA 2004, s 213(3)). Secondly, the tenant must be provided with specified prescribed information (HA 2004, s 213(5)(6)). The relevant prescribed information is set out in the Housing (Tenancy Deposits) (Prescribed Information) Order 2007, SI 2007/797. Failure to comply limits the landlord’s entitlement to serve a notice under HA 1988, s 21, and entitles the tenant to apply for an order for the return of the deposit or for its payment into an authorised scheme (HA 2004, s 214(3)), together with a financial award of not less than one, and not more than three, times the deposit’s value (HA 2004, s 214(4))...

This Q&A proceeds on the basis that the query concerns a tenancy in England. Section 21 notice Within 30 days of receiving a rent deposit, the landlord must satisfy the initial obligations of the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS) by supplying the tenant, and any person who pays the deposit for the tenant (i.e. the ‘relevant person’), with the prescribed details about the TDS, the deposit, and the assured shorthold tenancy (AST) (see section 213(3)–(6) of the Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004), as amended, and Practice Note: Tenancy deposit schemes). Non‑compliance may carry potential consequences indeed...