18.— The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following new section:

“50A.— (1) Subject to this section and section 50, the trustees of a scheme may—

(a) for the purpose of ensuring that the winding up of the scheme will not be required by reason only of the scheme not having sufficient resources to enable the liabilities of the scheme to be discharged,

(b) after compliance with regulations (if any) under this section, and

(c) with the consent of the Board,

make such amendments to the scheme as they consider appropriate.

(2) The Minister may make regulations requiring the trustees of a relevant scheme to give notice to the members of the scheme of any proposal to amend the scheme pursuant to this section and to give those members an opportunity to make representations to the trustees of the scheme in relation to the proposal before any amendment to the scheme is made.

(3) Regulations under this section may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary for the purposes of the regulations.

(4) Notwithstanding the rules of a relevant scheme, the consent of the members of the scheme to the amendment of the scheme pursuant to this section shall not be required.

(5) This section shall not operate to limit any power to amend the rules of a relevant scheme, that apart from this section, vests in the trustees of the scheme.”.