Earlier this year the government introduced a new regulator to the pensions sector. Dealing with work-based pension schemes and known as the Pensions Regulator, this new body has replaced Opra - the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority.The new regulator deals with any pension scheme made available by an employer, which includes occupational, personal and stakeholder schemes. Its main objective is to tackle risks to scheme members’ benefits. In this respect it will be a more proactive organisation than Opra, concentrating its resources on schemes where there is greatest risk to the security of members’ pensions.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has already started to gather detailed information about schemes and how they are being run through new scheme returns. The information provided will help support the risk assessment that will now be carried out on all schemes. This assessment will consider how likely it is that an event could occur that would affect the security of the scheme and will also consider the impact of the event should it occur. Any schemes assessed as high risk will then be closely monitored by TPR.
The introduction of TPR stems from a wider review of the pensions sector, which includes a new Pensions Act and a Pension Protection Fund. Further information about TPR can be obtained from www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk