The number of public sector service schemes recording accurate data has fallen by 4 per cent, leading to an increase in legal breaches,The Pensions Regulator has found.

A survey by the regulator, Public service governance and administration survey 2017 published yesterday, 23 May 2018, found that the number of schemes that have a process to monitor records for accuracy and completeness dropped from 89 per cent in 2016 to 85 per cent in 2017.

The survey, which was completed between 8 November and 28 December 2017, was answered by 191 of 207 public service schemes, a 92 per cent response rate, covering 98 per cent of members.

Speaking at the Pensions and Lifetime Associations Local Authority conference yesterday, TPR chief executive, Lesley Titcomb, said: “Across the public sector as a whole the survey results look positive, although there are some signs that process improvements have stalled in some local government schemes.

“I hope if we are open and honest with each other we can tackle this and address any failings.”

In particular, the proportion of firefighters’ pension schemes recording accurate data fell by 8 per cent, while police pension schemes fell from 86 per cent to 81 per cent.

“Much of our messaging to public sector service schemes over the last couple of years has been about data and it was therefore disappointing to see in the survey a fall in the number of schemes regularly recording records.

“Schemes told us that almost a fifth of legal breaches were caused by a failure to maintain records or rectify errors”, she added.

Titcomb also said that they would be increasing their regulatory activity in order to address scheme failings.

Furthermore, while scheme board engagement was up, half of boards admitted to having four meetings or less a year.

“We don’t think that provides sufficient opportunity for pension boards to effectively carry out their role”, she added.

On a more positive note, 92 per cent of respondents have a policy in place to manage board members’ conflict of interest, while 83 per cent had documented procedures for assessing and managing risks, both up 11 per cent on 2016, respectively.

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