Sackers responds to Government Consultation: ‘Trustees and governance, building a stronger future’

The Government has published its highly anticipated response to last year’s “Trustees and governance, building a stronger future” consultation.

Lucy Dunbar, partner, comments: “Trusteeship comes in differing forms, ranging from professional through to lay, as well as some variations in between. Likewise, pension schemes increasingly come in any number of different shapes and sizes. Recognising this rapidly shifting pensions landscape, we welcome yesterday’s response and its acknowledgment of the need for “strong governance” to be “at the heart of a healthy pensions system”.”

“With the future pensions market likely to involve fewer, larger schemes, the Government has announced a package of measures designed to strengthen governance. Proposals include working with the industry and TPR to continue to reinforce trustee capability and expertise, working to reduce conflicts of interest, and ensuring members have a voice in schemes falling outside of the MNT/MND requirements.”

“Unpacking this big bag of reforms, two in particular stand out from the crowd. The first is the planned new requirement on trustee chairs to assess the level and effectiveness of the skills mix on their boards. While many schemes already do this to a certain extent, the Government will work alongside TPR to develop a competency framework to support these assessments. The second is the proposal to introduce mandatory minimum standards for pension scheme administration providers (and TPR oversight), focusing on data quality. With good administration providing a foundation for any well-run scheme, it will be interesting to see how this will play out in practice.”