Charting a course to clearer water?

In what is set to be one of the most high profile cases of 2010, Sackers are helping the Pilots' National Pension Fund (PNPF) to chart a course to clearer waters. It has been listed by ‘The Lawyer’ as one of the top 10 cases of 2010.

The PNPF is an UK industry-wide pension scheme for marine pilots. Marine pilots help to guide ships into British ports using their local navigational knowledge and high level of ship-handling expertise.

The PNPF is approximately £300m in deficit and the Trustees have asked the High Court for guidance as to who is responsible for contributing to make up the deficit. Sackers are acting for the Port of London Authority (PLA) who, amongst other things, are responsible for the provision of pilotage services along the whole of the Thames estuary (as far up as Teddington in West London).

As well as the PLA and a number of other port authorities, individual members are directly represented in the litigation (as the PNPF is highly unusual in having self-employed members). This takes the total number of parties up to nine.

As well as handling this number of parties, the judge will have to consider nearly 50 questions on a wide range of complex issues. These cover key areas for pension schemes such as scheme funding and employer debt – in particular, on the latter, the Court looks likely to reopen issues previously decided in Cemex and Hearn & Dobson. And far from being just a technical tour-de-force of pensions law, it is a case with potentially far-reaching consequences for the British ports industry.

Peter Murphy, a partner in Sackers’ Dispute Resolution Unit, says that “The profession of marine pilots stretches back centuries in UK history and is vital to the ongoing success of trade through British ports.  Currently, approximately 95% of the UK's international trade is handled through seaports and the volume of trade continues to grow year on year. The litigation has far reaching consequences for the cost of pilotage and therefore for the health of the UK shipping trade, which influences us all.”

Back to the top | Back to Pensions News