The Department for Communities has made the Occupational Pension Schemes (Preservation of Benefit) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026, a narrowly drawn but significant change to pension transfer law. The Statutory Rule was made on 8 July 2026 and comes into operation on 31 July 2026. Its effect is to widen the circumstances in which an occupational pension scheme may transfer a member's accrued money purchase rights without that member's consent. From the commencement date, an authorised collective money purchase scheme, or an authorised section within a scheme, can be used as the receiving arrangement for those transfers.
According to the explanatory note published with S.R. 2026 No. 144 on legislation.gov.uk, the amendment sits within regulation 12 of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Preservation of Benefit) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1991. That provision deals with cases where a scheme does not retain short service benefit in place, but instead transfers accrued rights to another pension arrangement. In practice, this is part of the legal framework that governs preserved pension rights when a member leaves pensionable service. Regulation 12 already set conditions for transfers without consent, and paragraphs (7) to (9) specifically dealt with transfers of relevant money purchase rights. The 2026 Rule adds one further condition to that existing structure.
The operative text is brief. New regulation 12(7A) provides that the condition is met where the receiving scheme or section is authorised under Part 2 of the Pension Schemes Act 2021. The accompanying note states that this is intended to permit transfers of relevant money purchase rights into collective money purchase schemes that have obtained statutory authorisation under that Act. That drafting point matters. The amendment does not create a separate transfer regime from scratch. It inserts authorised collective money purchase arrangements into an existing permission within regulation 12, so the rule applies only within the defined category of relevant money purchase rights and only where the receiving scheme or section has the required legal status.
For trustees, employers and scheme administrators, the immediate compliance point is that authorisation now becomes a decisive legal test in these cases. Where a scheme is considering a transfer without consent into a collective money purchase arrangement, the receiving scheme or section must be authorised under Part 2 of the 2021 Act through the statutory process. The amendment is also deliberately narrow. It does not remove the wider protections around accrued pension rights, and it does not permit every category of occupational pension benefit to be moved without consent. The wording is confined to relevant money purchase rights within regulation 12.
For members, the change is unlikely to alter day-to-day pension administration immediately, but it does affect where certain preserved rights may be sent. A member whose relevant money purchase rights are transferred under regulation 12 may now find that the destination scheme is an authorised collective money purchase arrangement, even where individual consent has not been obtained. The safeguard written into the amendment is the authorisation requirement. The legislation points directly to Part 2 of the Pension Schemes Act 2021 rather than to a general market description, which means the receiving arrangement must fall within the statutory authorisation regime rather than simply present itself as a collective money purchase scheme.
The timing is important. Because the Rule comes into operation on 31 July 2026, schemes intending to use this transfer route will need their legal and administrative processes aligned before that date. In practical terms, that means checking transfer documentation, confirming the status of any receiving scheme or section, and ensuring member communications accurately describe the basis on which a no-consent transfer is being made. This is the type of amendment that can appear modest on the page but still carry operational weight. A single inserted paragraph can alter the range of lawful receiving arrangements, which in turn affects scheme design, consolidation activity and any future use of authorised collective money purchase sections within occupational pension provision.
The formal legal basis is set out in the recital to the instrument. The Department for Communities made the Rule under sections 69(4)(b) and 177(2) and (3) of the Pension Schemes (Northern Ireland) Act 1993, powers now vested in the Department. The instrument was sealed on 8 July 2026 by David Tarr, identified in the text as a senior officer of the Department for Communities. For policy readers, the central point is straightforward. Northern Ireland has amended its preservation regulations so that, from 31 July 2026, certain accrued money purchase rights can be transferred without consent to an authorised collective money purchase scheme or authorised section. Everything else in the instrument supports that single operative change.