7 days


7 Days is a weekly round up of developments in pensions, normally published on Monday afternoons. We collate this information from key industry sources, such as the DWP, HMRC and TPR.

In this 7 Days

Civil partnerships and same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland

Regulations were laid before parliament on 23 December 2019 enabling civil same-sex marriage and opposite-sex civil partnerships in Northern Ireland.  The regulations come into force on 13 January 2020 and follow on from the introduction of opposite-sex civil partnerships in England and Wales in December 2019.  Legislation permitting opposite-sex civil partnerships in Scotland is progressing through the Scottish parliament.

ICAEW update on Fifth Money Laundering Directive

The ICAEW has published an update received from HMRC on the implementation of the Fifth Money Laundering Directive (“MLD5”) and in relation to the Trust Registration Service (“TRS”).  Certain trusts need to register with the TRS but there is currently an exemption to this requirement which covers most pension schemes.  MLD5 expands the scope of the TRS.

The update states that the Government will publish a response to the April 2019 HMT consultation on the transposition of MLD5 “in early 2020”.  This follows the publication of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019 in December 2019, which implement MLD5 amendments in the UK.

In addition, the HMRC update quoted by the ICAEW references further consultation, noting that “the HMT consultation confirmed that HMRC would run a more detailed technical consultation on the details of implementation. Further details on this technical consultation and how you can contribute will be shared in early 2020 […] As part of this technical consultation draft legislation for the trust registration elements of [MLD5] will be shared. This will be transposed into domestic law during 2020”.

The HMRC update also states that “sufficient notice” of any requirement to provide information on the TRS will be given to those impacted by the changes “in order to ensure business readiness”.