UK - The Pensions Regulator has concluded its consultation on record-keeping by noting a good standard of record-keeping is needed across all UK pension schemes to help sponsor parties understand the true status of their arrangements.
Final guidance has been issued by TPR to help scheme administrators, employers and trustees try and establish what they could consider to be ‘common' data and ‘conditional' data in pensions admin management.
More specifically, common data such as name, address, date of birth, NI number, dates of pensionable service and expected retirement can be recognised as applicable to all schemes, said the TPR in its guidance, whereas conditional data - required to administer a scheme - can vary from scheme to scheme based on its design and strucuture, but could include salary and details of investments.
Given the scale of the variations, TPR stressed there was broad consensus among all those who responded to the consultation to suggest some level of consistency around data handling was needed to assist employers and trustees understand where there may be risks around numerical data.
"Data quality is essential to good governance," said Justin Wray, head of pensions administration and governance at TPR.
"We know there are problems with data and that these cross a broad spectrum of schemes. Member records are a valuable asset, and this good practice guidance has been developed, with input from the pensions industry, as a straightforward tool to help assess risks arising from poor data," he added.
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