According to the latest list of proposed amendments to be moved at the House of Lords Committee stage of the Pension Schemes Bill, Baroness Bowles has tabled an amendment to clause 100 of the Bill, which concerns the remedial provisions intended to deal with the Virgin Media decision. The amendment seeks to remove subsections (9) and (10), which exclude from the scope of the remedy amendments which are the subject of existing legal proceedings.   The Committee begins its rev

The long-running saga involving the Places for People Group Retirement Benefit Scheme has finally come to an end with the High Court this afternoon approving a compromise of all the issues relating to the validity and rectification of scheme documents, following a two-day hearing. Although the judgment of Richards J makes no new law, it contains useful summaries of the approach to be taken by the Court in approving a compromise in the pensions context, and of the law on recti

New amendments have today been tabled to the Pension Schemes Bill, including changes made by the Secretary of State to the clauses which remedy the problems caused by Virgin Media decision. Most of those changes are relatively minor. The only three of any substance are: Gov 58, which amends the definition of “positive action” that will trigger the exclusion of the scheme from the remedial provisions, so that any step taken by the scheme trustees or managers to alter benefit p

In AD Bly Groundworks and Civil Engineering Ltd v HMRC  [2025] EWCA Civ 1443, the Court of Appeal has upheld the decision of the Upper Tribunal that a company’s liabilities representing its promise to provide future pension benefits to key employees via an UURBS were incurred for the purpose of a tax avoidance scheme rather than expenses incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the company’s trade, so that those liabilities were not deductible from the company’s pr

In November 2024, the Deputy Pensions Ombudsman issued a 768-paragraph determination in which he found the trustees and managers of 3 pension schemes liable for dishonest breaches of duty with regard to the investment of scheme assets as part of a pension liberation exercise. An appeal from that determination has been dismissed by Richards J: Brambles Administration Limited v Harvey . The appeal was on limited grounds, relating to the time limits for bringing complaints, the

An amendment to the Pension Schemes Bill has today been tabled by the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee which seeks to add to the matters which pension scheme trustees and managers can take into account when selecting investments.   Those matters are:   “system-level considerations”, defined as risks and opportunities that cannot be fully managed through diversification alone and which arise from sector-level circumstances, including environmental or social matters; t

As expected, the Financial Reporting Council has announced that it will develop technical guidance to support scheme actuaries in...

In a determination issued last week (Mrs T, CAS-78486-R9D8), the Deputy Pensions Ombudsman declined to follow the High Court’s decision...

In yesterday’s news item on Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys LLP , we said that the High Court’s decision that the “reserved legal...

By section 13(2) of the Legal Services Act 2007, “reserved legal activities” may only be undertaken by prescribed legally qualified...

In Thynne v Jevny Pty Limited  [2025] NSWSC 986, the Supreme Court of New South Wales had to consider whether the presumption of...

Following its promise in June 2025 to legislate to relieve pension schemes from the effects of the Virgin Media decision, the government...

The PO has issued a determination of a complaint that the trustee of the British Steel Pension Scheme failed to carry out sufficient due...

By contrast to UK law, Irish law does not restrict the right of a solvent employer of a DB scheme to terminate its contribution liability...

In Pelgrave v The Pensions Regulator [2025] UKUT 257 (TCC), the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) upheld the issue of a...

The Pension Schemes Bill was given its second reading in the House of Commons last night. During his speech the Pensions Minister,...

The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has issued a determination following a complaint by members of the Bic UK Pension Scheme concerning the...

In Renishaw PLC v Ross Trustees Services Ltd [2025] EWHC 1445 (Ch), HHJ Hodge KC, sitting as a Judge of the High Court, has applied the...

The Government has today announced that it will introduce legislation to give pension schemes affected by the Virgin Media decision the...

In Century Property (Leeds) Ltd v Aldiss [2025] EWHC 1348 (KB), the High Court has ordered the enforcement of a judgment debt against the...