About Us Consumers Advisers Employers Media

You are not logged in.

• Log in
• Register

Employer  >  Trustee Zone  >  OPS Matters  >  Good record keeping

Good record keeping

In a busy July, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has issued yet another consultation, this time on the importance of good record keeping in the governance of pension schemes.

The consultation is aimed at those responsible for record keeping such as trustees of trust based schemes but applies equally to all work-based arrangements including Group Personal Pensions (GPPs) and Stakeholder arrangements.

TPR acknowledges that a lot of schemes do achieve high standards but it has also stated that there’s room for improvement. Problem areas include poor legacy data and record keeping which can ultimately lead to significant additional costs for members, the employer, or both.

What does the consultation call for?

• Testing for the presence of “core information” for every member
• Whether trustees or providers should identify and measure the additional information required to administer their particular scheme and, if necessary, develop a plan to obtain missing information
• Whether TPR should consider, at a later date, benchmarks for the presence of additional information

It’s also proposed that the importance of data/record keeping is included in the Trustee toolkit and that administration in its own right should be added to the scope for trustee knowledge and understanding (TKU).

Next steps

This is an important issue so we recommend you discuss this topic in great detail. The benefits of good record keeping are self explanatory so we await with interest TPRs final guidance. 

It’s a 12 week consultation so the deadline for responses to the consultation ends on 15 October. It’s likely we won’t hear anything until 2009 so we’ll comment on the final guidance once TPR has issued it.

The information provided is based on our current understanding of the relevant legislation and regulations and may be subject to alteration as a result of changes in legislation or practice.

Source: The Pensions Regulator - Record-keeping: A consultation document, July 2008