Scheme return meaning

POWER CLAUSE / RULE HELD BY REQUIRES AGREEMENT OR CONSULTATION WITH SUBJECT TO Authority to amend; to wind the scheme up or delay winding-up; to cease future benefit accrual; to shut to new joiners; to readmit employees to membership of the scheme Discretion to set the employer contribution rate; to lower or suspend contributions; to apportion statutory debts Ability to enhance or vary benefits; to permit early retirement pensions and set actuarial reductions; to allow incapacity pensions, decide whether a member meets the incapacity definition, and reduce or pause such pensions; to grant pensions for serious ill-health; to apply actuarial uplifts for late retirement; to fix the rate at which pension is exchanged for a lump sum; to commute trivial pensions; to provide a bridging pension; to award discretionary increases to pensions; to make unauthorised payments Capacity to admit new employers or end their participation; to replace the principal employer; to transfer members’ benefits into or out of the scheme Authority to return...

In this issue: Energy efficiency and buildings Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental enforcement and prosecutions ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste Waste producer responsibility regimes Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Latest Q&A Energy efficiency and buildings The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has issued its 2025 post‑implementation review (PIR) of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1643). Using Phase 3 compliance notifications from the Environment Agency, together with unpublished interim data from Phase 3 action plans, and building on the 2020 PIR, it recommends holding off any major amendments to the ESOS Regulations until a full evaluation ends in May 2026, after which a comprehensive PIR will be completed. The research evaluates how energy audits and reporting identify and deliver energy efficiency savings across organisations. See: LNB News 14/08/2025 6...

What is the background to the call for evidence? Following Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt’s Mansion House address the night before, the DWP launched the call for evidence. Issued in tandem with several other DWP publications, these materials covered a broad spread of topics affecting UK pension schemes. Their shared aim was to boost investment in UK productive finance whilst shielding members’ benefits and giving precedence to a resilient, diversified gilt market. The Chancellor characterised the proposals across the various papers as the ‘Mansion House reforms’. The DWP placed the Response alongside further papers pertinent to DB pension schemes, including: the Autumn Statement 2023, which confirms that the Government will reduce the authorised surplus payments charge, currently payable on a return of surplus to a scheme employer, from 35% to 25% from 6 April 2024; and Call for evidence outcome: Pension trustee skills, capability and culture What was the outcome? ...

Original News Anderson v HMRC [2016] UKFTT 0565 (TC) What was the case about? In his tax return, Mr Anderson sought £3m of relief under sections 64 and 72 ITA 2007, claiming losses from trading activities labelled ‘football development’. He had put funds into the Bafana soccer academy in South Africa, created to cultivate emerging football talent and generate income through the profitable transfer of successful players. HMRC issued a discovery assessment, asserting the losses did not stem from a trade conducted on a commercial basis with a view to profit, and that the predominant purpose of the activity was to secure a tax advantage. Why did the appellant dispute the validity of the discovery assessment? The appellant’s central challenge was that there had been no ‘discovery’. At the point the assessment was raised, HMRC, he said, lacked reasonable grounds to believe Mr Anderson had been under-assessed, as it did not possess adequate information to support such a conclusion at the relevant time. In particular, the...

The extended producer responsibility (EPR) regime for packaging and packaging waste The extended producer responsibility (EPR) regime for packaging and packaging waste shifts the entire cost of managing household packaging waste from households to packaging producers, placing on them accountability for their packaging costs throughout its lifecycle. Lower charges apply to sustainable packaging, incentivising designs that use fewer materials and are easier to recycle. Under EPR, Local Authorities (LAs) receive producer-funded payments covering the net costs of collecting, managing, recycling and disposing of this household packaging waste. EPR is governed by the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/1332 (as amended). These regulations define a range of persons and bodies with specific functions within the regime. These are: producers—these are the principal duty holders compliance schemes the Scheme Administrator (SA) (PackUK) ‘relevant authorities’ which are LAs as household waste collection and disposal authorities responsible for household waste services reprocessors and exporters the ‘appropriate agency’—in England, the Environment...

Interest Interest is a key concept within UK tax law. In particular, a duty to withhold UK income tax can arise on payments of specified categories of interest; for further detail, see Practice Note: UK withholding tax on yearly interest. Be aware that, from 6 April 2016, the tax deduction scheme for interest (TDSI) no longer applies. Broadly, before 6 April 2016, the TDSI obliged a deposit-taker (ie a bank) to deduct UK income tax from interest paid or credited before 6 April 2016 on a deposit held by a UK resident individual, an individual’s personal representatives or trustees. For interest paid or credited on or after 6 April 2016, alongside the abolition of the TDSI (given effect by removing section 851 of the Income Tax Act 2007 (ITA 2007)), an express exemption confirms there is no requirement to withhold UK income tax under ITA 2007, s 874—ie the rule to deduct UK income tax from yearly interest—where the payment is made by a deposit-taker and the investment is...

THIS PRACTICE NOTE RELATES TO REGISTERED OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES STOP PRESS 1: On 18 November 2025, the Pensions Regulator (TPR) urged trustees to treat member data as their foremost ‘strategic asset’ so schemes are prepared for pensions dashboards by the final connection date of 31 October 2026. After engaging with hundreds of schemes, TPR noted improvements in data quality but pointed to gaps in value data and excessive reliance on administrators, warning that neglect could put dashboard compliance at risk. It also issued refreshed member data guidance that brings together all existing data-related guidance, sets out clearer expectations for trustees and shares best practice to strengthen data management capability. TPR adds that it is reviewing data readiness among the UK’s largest schemes and will step up engagement in 2026. For more information, see LNB News 18/11/2025 43. STOP PRESS 2: On 19 November 2025, the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) released guidance, ‘The Six Data Quality Dimensions for Pension Scheme Member Data’, together with a supporting...

1 Definitions Insert defined terms into the Share Purchase Agreement, including: Accounts Date; Business Day; Buyer; CA 2006; Company; Completion; Completion Date; Conditions; Contractor; Disclosure Letter; Employee; Employment Legislation; former; holding company; Sale Shares; Seller; Subsidiaries and subsidiary; TULRCA; TUPE; Warranties; and Worker... 2 Employment Directors: Listed in the Disclosure Letter; no others held out. Employees, Workers and Contractors: The Disclosure Letter gives anonymised terms, benefits, scheme eligibility and absences; contracts and policies annexed; work is exclusive; no return rights, pending offers, restrictive obligations, post‑Accounts Date changes, promised increases, or flexible requests; no hybrid arrangements offered or under negotiation. Termination: All roles terminable on three months or less without extra liability; no notices; Completion creates no rights or payments; no contractual redundancy scheme. Liabilities and payments: No termination payments promised; no contingent liabilities; consultation duties complied with; only routine pay, expenses and holiday due. Disputes and disciplinary: No EHRC enquiries, union disputes, claims, live disciplinary/capability/grievance cases, or unanswered Equality Act questions....

Form of proxy for use at the meeting of the members of [ insert name of offeree ] PLC (the Company) Convened by order of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales dated [ insert date of court order ] (the Court Meeting), this proxy concerns the meeting of members called to consider and, if appropriate, approve a proposed scheme of arrangement (the Scheme), with or without amendment. The Court Meeting is scheduled at [ insert location of meeting ] on [ insert date ] at [ insert time ] [ am OR pm ] and/or at any adjournment of the Court Meeting. Kindly complete, sign and return this form so that it reaches the Company’s registrars, [ insert name ] (the Registrars), at [ insert address ] no later than [ insert time ] [ am OR pm ] on [ insert date ]. Before you complete this form, please consult the explanatory notes below together with the guidance and notes included in the...

This Deed is entered into on the [ insert day ] day of [ insert month ] 20[ insert year ]... Parties [ Insert full company name ], a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number [ insert number ], whose registered office is at [ insert registered company address ] (the ‘Principal Company’); and [ [ Insert full name of company ] incorporated in England and Wales with company number [ insert number ] and whose registered office is at [ insert registered company address ] OR [ insert individual name(s) ] of [ insert individual address(es) ] ] (the ‘Trustees’). Background: (A) [ Insert full name of scheme ] (the ‘Scheme’) came into being under an [ interim OR definitive ] deed dated [ insert date ]. (B) The Scheme is at present governed by a trust deed dated [ insert date ], as varied by the deeds executed thereafter [ , particulars of which appear...

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))...

Coronavirus (COVID-19)—holiday and holiday pay [Archived] If you require general guidance on matters concerning the right to holiday and holiday pay during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, consult Practice Note: Coronavirus (COVID-19)—holiday and holiday pay [Archived]. The way holiday pay is calculated under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998), SI 1998/1833, has continued unchanged throughout the coronavirus pandemic; the amendments contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Coronavirus, Calculation of a Week’s Pay) Regulations 2020 (Week’s Pay Amendments Regs 2020), SI 2020/814, do not apply to the calculation of holiday pay. Under regulation 16 of the WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833, a worker taking statutory holiday is entitled to be paid at the rate of a “week’s pay” for each week of leave, with that figure determined in accordance with sections 221–224 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), subject to specified modifications. Different approaches to calculating a week’s pay are used depending on whether the worker has “normal working hours” or “no normal working hours”...

The appropriate section of the HMRC annual return to complete hinges on whether the relevant share appreciation right (SAR) or restricted stock unit (RSU) constitutes a securities option for the purposes of s 420(8) of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003. In both scenarios, the award counts as a securities option if it grants a legal entitlement to obtain shares, and this, in turn, is determined in practice by the precise terms of the award concerning the method by which settlement may actually occur...