Pensions Weekly Update – 9 April 2025

Here is our weekly summary of key legal and regulatory developments relevant to occupational pension schemes that you might have missed, with links for further information.

• The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has announced that it will introduce a framework for overseeing the professional trustee market, which has grown significantly in recent years. TPR has gathered evidence from 11 of the biggest trustee firms and has found a variety of business models, which present different risks, opportunities and potential conflicts of interest. TPR’s market oversight report explores some of the areas where risks to pension saver outcomes could arise, including:
  • Relationships with employers
  • Profit and remuneration models
  • Sole trusteeships
  • In-house advisers
  • Scheme decision makers
  TPR’s market oversight team will establish and expand its supervisory relationships with professional trustee firms, extending its approach to cover remaining firms by the end of the year. TPR encourages anyone with information or experience of risks posed by the professional trustee market to make contact.
• TPR has issued a press release alongside its latest compliance and enforcement bulletin. In the period July-December 2024, TPR issued 18 fines to trustees of defined contribution (DC) schemes for failures to complete a detailed value for money assessment (which is a requirement for DC schemes with assets less than £100 million). 
• Trustees of schemes with year-end dates of 31 March or 5 April have less than 12 months to undertake their first Own Risk Assessment (ORA). Pensions partner, Kate Bailey, looks at how trustees should plan for their first and subsequent ORAs in her recent blog.  
• Directors of corporate trustees are now able to undertake voluntary identity verification with Companies House, in advance of the mandatory requirement to do this from the autumn. The process is simple to complete using a GOV.UK One Login, a mobile phone, and a biometric passport. This link will get you started.
• Our latest restructuring round-up is jam-packed with developments, including plans for restructuring HMRC debt and a focus on recent cases.
• Labour & Employment partner, David Whincup, examines an interesting case of “dismissal by accident” in his latest blog. This case must have posed an interesting challenge for the employment tribunal!
• The full rate of state pension has increased to £230.25 a week for the 2025-2026 tax year. Did you know that the first “old age” pensions in the UK were paid in 1908 to qualifying individuals over 70 who were of good character? The amount of 5 shillings a week was not intended to be generous, but it was certainly a welcome addition for struggling individuals. 

If you would like specific advice on any of these issues or anything else, please contact a member of our Pensions team.