The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has issued new administration guidance for trustees and scheme managers amid consolidation and regulatory change across the sector.
The regulator says this revised guidance is designed to help schemes and their administrators deliver high-quality services that can protect members and support better outcomes. The revised guidance has a new focus on emerging threats, such as cyber-security, data management and member communications.
Publishing this new guidance, TPR says that administration is no longer a back-office function, but a critical driver of delivering good outcomes for savers, with good administration underpinning trust in the pensions system.
This revised guidance follows findings from TPR’s recent market oversight report, which highlighted both improvements and ongoing challenges around governance, technology, data quality and operational resilience. With regulatory change accelerating and member expectations rising, the regulator said the role of administrators had “never been more important”.
The guidance aims to protect members by ensuring accurate, timely and secure administration of benefits, while promoting robust planning processes to reduce the risks of errors, delays and regulatory breaches.
It also provides clearer direction a range of “essential” areas including data management, member communications, disaster recovery and business-continuity planning.
New elements include a stronger focus on governance of administration IT systems, with links to TPR’s existing cyber-security guidance. The regulator has also broadened expectations around performance measurement, encouraging schemes to look beyond time-based service levels to more meaningful assessments of quality and accuracy.
TPR is also highlighting the importance of having formal administration policies and robust arrangements for overseeing both outsourced and in-house providers.
TPR executive director of market oversight,Julian Lyne, says: “High-quality administration is fundamental to delivering good outcomes for savers. Our updated guidance sets clear expectations for schemes and administrators to work in partnership to strengthen governance and ensure resilience in the pensions system. Trustees and scheme managers remain accountable for administration – even when tasks are delegated.”
He added that TPR expects schemes to refer to the guidance regularly, particularly sections covering IT system maintenance and security.
PASA chair David Fairs welcomed this new guidance, saying was leased to see the organisation’s work referenced so clearly. “Strong administration is fundamental to delivering good outcomes for savers, and trustees now have clearer expectations and practical tools to support them.
“PASA’s guidance on data, our transfer code and our accreditation framework give schemes the structure and independent assurance they need to meet these standards. We encourage all trustees to review the new guidance, assess their arrangements and consider PASA accreditation as a key factor when appointing or overseeing their administrators. This is an important moment for the industry, administration is now recognised as the strategic priority it should have always been.”