Alerts

Focusing on breaking news

• "Whistleblowing" - the duty to report breaches

  Viewed by the Pensions Regulator (TPR) as a "vital part of the regulatory framework", the new "whistleblowing" requirements under the Pensions Act 2004 (PA 2004) came into force on 6 April 2005. The provisions of PA 2004 are supplemented by the TPR code of practice and supporting guidance. The whistleblowing duty covers the duty of report material breaches of the law relating to occupational and personal pension schemes (including stakeholder schemes) in writing to TPR. Crucially, from 6 April 2005, the responsibility for reporting breaches falls upon a significantly expanded group, including trustees, scheme managers, administrators, certain professional advisers (including lawyers) and employers (reporters). It is therefore essential that all reports have a procedure in place for dealing with this new responsibility.

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• Protecting the PPF - reporting notifiable events

  As part and parcel of the Pensions Regulator's (TPR) responsibilities towards protecting against unnecessary calls upon the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), new reporting duties came into effect on 6 April 2005. Those on the hook for reporting "notifiable" events are trustees and employers of schemes potentially eligible for the PPF. Subject to some exceptions, notifiable events will need to be reported to TPR in writing as soon as reasonably practicable whenever they arise. It is therefore essential that trustees and employers of relevant schemes have a procedure in place for dealing with this new responsibility. The new duty is set out in regulations (which came into force on 6 April 2005), a direction published recently by TPR and a code of practice currently laid before Parliament (due to the General Election, this is unlikely to be issued in final form before July 2005).

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• Pensions Act 2004 - Internal Dispute Resolution Procedures

  Amendments contained in the Pensions Act 2004 (PA 2004) will allow trustees of occupational pension schemes to operate a simplified one stage internal dispute resolution procedure (IDRP) under section 50 of the Pensions Act 1995. Whilst a consultation paper on the draft Regulations was published by the Department for Work and Pensions on 24 January 2005, we have been waiting for details of the time limits which will apply to dealing with complaints. A draft Code of Practice "Dispute Resolution - reasonable periods" was published for consultation by the Pensions Regulator on 1 April 2005. The new IDRP provisions were originally due to come into force in April 2005, but commencement was been put back to 23 September 2005.

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• Pensions Act 2004 - in force from 6 April

  Parts of the Pensions Act 2004 come into force on 6 April 2005. In the lead up, we thought it would be helpful to provide you with a quick recap of the areas coming into force.

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• Tax simplification - Finance Bill 2005

  Following Gordon Brown's Budget confirmation that "a package of supplementary measures" on tax simplification was in the pipeline, the Finance Bill 2005 was published on 24 March 2005. The amending provisions are contained in two rather short sections (sections 150 and 151) and a rather chunky schedule (Schedule 19). The changes in the Bill will form part of the tax simplification changes due to come into force on 6 April 2006 (A-Day). They reflect those changes announced by the Inland Revenue back in February 2005, with the new measures covering four main areas of the current tax simplification proposals.

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• Scheme funding - consultation published

  It has been a long time coming but we now have the Government's thinking on life after the minimum funding requirement (MFR). It will be replaced by a Statutory Funding Objective (SFO), which is designed to reflect the funding standard under the EC Pensions Directive. Whilst the scheme funding process is contained in the Pensions Act 2004, much of the detail was left to Regulations and to a Code of Practice to be issued by the Pensions Regulator. Here we take an overview of these recently published draft documents.

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