Commentary on Sections Summary Circumstances in which Board assumes responsibility for eligible schemes Section 128: Duty to assume responsibility for schemes following application or notification
405.See notes for section 127 for information regarding the effect of the Board assuming responsibility for a scheme.
406.This section provides for the Board to assume responsibility for schemes whose sponsoring employers cease to be going concerns but cannot be subject to insolvency events as defined in section 121 – for example public sector schemes without a crown guarantee and schemes with employers based overseas and subject to foreign insolvency proceedings.
407.Subsection (1) provides that this section applies where the trustees or managers of such schemes make an application to the Board under section 129(1) or receive a notice from the Board under section 129(5)(a). Subsection (2) provides for the Board to assume responsibility for such a scheme if:
	the value of the assets of the scheme is less than the amount of the protected liabilities (section 131) (for this purpose assets relating to money purchase benefits are disregarded);
	a scheme failure notice becomes binding; and
	there has not been and cannot be a withdrawal event resulting from a withdrawal notice issued before the scheme failure notice was issued.
408.Subsection (4) provides that where such a scheme is already subject to an assessment period (see section 132), any further applications or notifications under section 129 made during that period will be disregarded.