PRAG and Pension Scheme Annual Reports

PRAG, in conjunction with the Joint Industry Forum on Workplace Pensions have recently written to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) - We call on government to repeal or amend the Regulations in relation to the contents of the Annual Report of Pension Schemes. 

Shona Harvie of the PRAG Executive who has led the initiative has indicated ‘The Annual Report has become a repository for additional information required by the Regulations. In a letter to the DWP the pensions industry calls on the government to remove duplicated information required by the Regulations from the Annual Report. This information makes the Annual Report very lengthy and this is one of its most common criticisms. This additional information also makes the Annual Report unreadable to the scheme members due to its length and complexity, costly to produce, causes delays in signing the Financial Statements and adds no value as the information is already publicly available.’

Lydia Song, the Chair of PRAG has said; ‘PRAG wishes to express its thanks to its fellow members of the Joint Industry Forum on Workplace Pensions for lending their support to this initiative. We would also be grateful for those organisations involved in the preparation and audit of these documents to lend their support by forwarding the letter with their support to the DWP.

The letter can be found here : Joint Industry Forum on Workplace Pensions

ADDENDUM: PRAG Executive Board is delighted to see many pensions news outlets have picked up the initiative on calling DWP to amend Regulations governing contents of pension schemes’ annual reports. 

Some of you have already expressed interest in lending your support by forwarding the Joint Industry Forum on Workplace Pensions (JIF) letter to DWP, we have therefore drafted a simple template to provide a little information from the organisation who is supporting the campaign. Please feel free to use it or create your own. 

You can find the template here: A template letter supporting the campaign