Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024
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Chapter 5 Offences | ||
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Offences in relation to contributions | ||
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131. (1) An employer who— | ||
(a) fails to pay at or within a prescribed time any contribution which he or she is liable to pay under section 59 , or | ||
(b) makes a deduction from the gross pay of an employee in respect of any contribution which the employer is liable under section 59 to pay and fails to pay at or within a prescribed time the contribution in respect of which the deduction was made, | ||
is guilty of an offence. | ||
(2) An employer, or a servant or agent acting on behalf of the employer, who, for the purpose of evading or reducing the amount of an employer’s liability in respect of a contribution which the employer is liable to pay under section 59 and which he or she has not paid— | ||
(a) knowingly makes any statement or representation (whether written or verbal) which is to his or her knowledge false or misleading in any material respect, or knowingly conceals any material fact, or | ||
(b) produces or furnishes, or causes or knowingly allows to be produced or furnished, any document or information which he or she knows to be false in a material particular, | ||
is guilty of an offence. | ||
(3) If an offence under subsection (1) is committed by an employer who pays emoluments on behalf of another person and the offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of that other person, that other person shall, as well as the employer, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence. | ||
(4) Where an employer has been convicted under subsection (1) of the offence of failing to pay any contributions which he or she is liable under section 59 to pay, the employer is liable to pay to the Authority a sum equal to the amount which the employer has failed to pay and an interest rate calculated in accordance with section 138 and, on such conviction, if notice of the intention to do so has been served with the summons or warrant, evidence may be given of the failure on the part of the employer to pay other contributions in respect of the same person during the 3 years immediately before the date when the notice was so served, and on proof of that failure the court may order the employer to pay to the Authority a sum equal to the total of all the contributions which the employer is so proved to have failed to pay and an interest rate calculated in accordance with section 138 , and the employer’s right of appeal against the conviction under subsection (1) shall include a right to appeal against that order. | ||
(5) Where a person (referred to in this subsection as “the principal”) has been convicted of an offence under subsection (3) on proof that an offence by an employer under subsection (1), of failing to pay any contributions which the employer is liable under section 59 to pay, was committed with the consent or connivance of the principal, the principal is liable to pay to the Authority a sum equal to the amount which the employer has failed to pay and an interest rate calculated in accordance with section 138 and, on such conviction, if notice of the intention to do so has been served with the summons or warrant, evidence may be given of the failure on the part of the employer to pay other contributions in respect of the same person during the 3 years immediately before the date when the notice was so served, and on proof of that failure the court may order the principal to pay to the Authority a sum equal to the total of all the contributions which the employer is so proved to have failed to pay and an interest rate calculated in accordance with section 138 , and the principal’s right of appeal against the conviction under subsection (3) shall include a right to appeal against that order. | ||
(6) Where a sum is payable under subsection (4) and subsection (5) in respect of the same unpaid contributions, the sum may be recovered under either (but not both) of those subsections. | ||
(7) Any sum paid under subsection (4) or (5) shall be treated as a payment in satisfaction of the unpaid contributions, and those contributions shall not be recoverable by any person from the employee. |