The Occupational Pension Schemes (Preservation of Benefit) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 were made on 2 June 2026, laid before Parliament on 3 June and come into force on 31 July 2026. The instrument, published on legislation.gov.uk and signed for the Department for Work and Pensions by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Torsten Bell, extends to England and Wales and Scotland. Its legal change is brief but important. It inserts a new paragraph 7A into regulation 12 of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Preservation of Benefit) Regulations 1991 so that a member's relevant money purchase rights may be transferred without consent where the receiving scheme or section is authorised under Part 1 of the Pension Schemes Act 2021.
Regulation 12 is the part of the 1991 framework that deals with cases where an occupational pension scheme may transfer accrued rights instead of providing short service benefit. The explanatory note to the 2026 instrument states that paragraphs 7 to 9 already set out the conditions for transferring relevant money purchase rights without the member's consent. The new Regulations add to that structure rather than replacing it. In practical terms, they extend the existing no-consent transfer route to authorised collective money purchase arrangements, commonly described as CDC schemes, where the receiving scheme or section sits within the statutory authorisation regime created by the 2021 Act.
That reference to authorisation is the main control written into the amendment. The receiving arrangement must not simply present itself as a collective money purchase scheme; it must be authorised under Part 1 of the Pension Schemes Act 2021. The explanatory material also notes that Part 1 of the 2021 Act was amended in 2025 by the Occupational Pension Schemes (Collective Money Purchase Schemes) (Extension to Unconnected Multiple Employer Schemes and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2025. For policy readers, that places the latest change within a broader run of secondary legislation developing the CDC framework.
From 31 July 2026, trustees, scheme managers and administrators considering transfers of relevant money purchase rights will need to test whether the receiving scheme or receiving section has the required authorised status. Where it does, new paragraph 7A provides a clearer statutory basis for completing a transfer without an individual consent exercise. The immediate effect is likely to be administrative rather than political. Transfer policies, internal approvals and member-facing documentation may all need review so that the legal basis used after 31 July matches the amended wording of regulation 12.
For sponsoring employers, the change may widen the set of lawful destinations available when dealing with money purchase rights covered by regulation 12. That could matter where scheme restructuring, consolidation or redesign involves an authorised collective money purchase section. For members, the position is narrower than the headline might suggest. The Regulations do not remove consent across pension transfers more generally. They permit no-consent transfers only in the defined circumstances already governed by regulation 12, now with authorised CDC schemes and sections added to that route.
The drafting is important because the amendment is tightly framed. It does not rewrite the wider preservation regime, and it does not disapply the rest of regulation 12. Existing legal conditions remain part of the test because the 2026 instrument inserts a further paragraph into the current framework rather than replacing it. That distinction will matter in compliance work. A transfer into a collective money purchase arrangement will not qualify simply because it is administratively convenient; the receiving scheme or section must fall within the authorised category set out in paragraph 7A, and the wider regulation still has to be satisfied.
The explanatory note records that the Secretary of State consulted persons considered appropriate under section 185(1) of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 before making the Regulations. It also states that no full impact assessment was produced because no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. The practical effect is technical but real. From 31 July 2026, authorised collective money purchase schemes are expressly added to the legal destinations available for certain no-consent transfers of relevant money purchase rights within occupational pension schemes in Great Britain.