This checklist summarises the content requirements of schemes’ annual reports and accounts under the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/2734. For more detailed information on the requirement for occupational pension schemes to produce annual reports and accounts, see Practice Note: Pension scheme annual reports and accounts. Requirement to prepare and disclose a pension scheme annual report The trustees of an occupational pension scheme which satisfies the conditions of the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/2734, Sch 1, Para 1 must prepare an annual report within seven months after the end of each scheme year. For more information, see: Disclosure requirements for occupational and personal pension schemes—the 2013 disclosure regulations—Scope of the 2013 Disclosure Regulations. The annual report must be given to any relevant person (ie a member, prospective member, their spouse or civil partner, a beneficiary or a recognised trade union) who: • makes a request for that document within five years of the end of the scheme year to which the annual report relates,

Pensions analysis: The Pensions Ombudsman has partially upheld a complaint about a lump sum paid by mistake. Martin Scott of gunnercooke LLP looks at the decision.

Pensions analysis: The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has partially upheld a complaint about a delay in making a pension transfer. Martin Scott of gunnercooke LLP looks at the decision.

Pensions analysis: The principal employer under an occupational pension scheme sought a declaration as to the correct construction of a money purchase underpin contained in the definitive trust deed of a final salary scheme. Read literally, the relevant provision imposed substantial and unintended liabilities, but the scheme had been administered so as to give effect to the parties’ contemporaneous intentions. The employer asked the court to apply the principle of correction by construction. The court held that there had been a clear mistake in the drafting, as was evident from the document and the surrounding factual matrix, and further that the solution required to correct it was also clear. The declaration sought was therefore granted, as was a further declaration that the scheme had been correctly administered in the relevant respect. The case is therefore a helpful illustration for advisers of the circumstances in which correction by construction may be available. Written by Elizabeth Ovey, barrister at Radcliffe Chambers.

Pensions analysis: The claimant, the principal employer under the 3i Pension Plan (the Plan), sought a declaration broadly to the effect that on the true construction of the Plan’s power of amendment the restriction on amendments affecting ‘accrued rights or interests’ did not prevent termination of the future accrual of benefits and the Plan had been validly closed to future accrual by a deed dated 22 February 2010. Concern as to the effectiveness of the deed had arisen in the light of the Court of Appeal’s decision in British Broadcasting Corporation v BBC Pension Trust that a restriction protecting members’ ‘interests’ protected the ability to continue to accrue future service benefits. The first defendant, the representative beneficiary, argued for a similar construction. After considering the correct approach to construction and relevant linguistic principles, the court granted the declaration sought. The case will be reassuring to many practitioners who have construed a similar phrase in a similar way and the reasoning offers useful guidance. Written by Elizabeth Ovey, barrister at Radcliffe Chambers.

Law360: A rise in funding means UK pension schemes have more end-game options, consultancy Broadstone said 9 April 2024, as the aggregate surplus of thousands of defined benefit schemes increased to £455.5bn by the end of March.

Law360: The average timeline for pension schemes to reach a point where they can buy out their liabilities with an insurance company was extended in July 2024, due to falling bond yields, experts said.

Pensions analysis: The Pensions Ombudsman has rejected a complaint about the return of a winding-up lump sum. Martin Scott of gunnercooke LLP looks at the decision.

Pensions analysis: The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has upheld a complaint about a pension scheme’s failure to pay a death benefit. Martin Scott of gunnercooke LLP looks at the decision.

Pensions analysis: The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has upheld a complaint about the payment of death benefits. Martin Scott of gunnercooke LLP looks at the decision.

Pensions analysis: The Pensions Ombudsman has partially upheld a complaint about the repayment of an overpaid pension. Martin Scott of gunnercooke LLP looks at the decision.

Pensions analysis: The Pensions Ombudsman has rejected a complaint about the payment of a survivor’s benefit. Martin Scott of gunnercooke LLP looks at the decision.