The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has said there is a “significant minority” of small scheme trustees who are refusing to engage with their 21st Century Trusteeship initiative.

Speaking at the Pensions Age Spring Conference yesterday, 28 March, TPR head of policy, Fiona Frobisher, said that on the whole engagement has been positive, but that some smaller schemes just “completely disengage” when it comes to education on governance.

The regulator launched its 21st Century Trusteeship programme last year, giving trustees clearer guidance on managing issues their scheme could be facing.

Frobisher said: “We have had good engagement, lots of people have read the information and people who have read it found it useful. But, that’s the people who have engaged with it.

“We have done a lot of follow up and research and what we have found, is that while people that use it find it useful and find we can show that people who read it generally have better governance of schemes.

“But we can also show that there is a significant minority of schemes that just don’t engage at all, who have looked at it and said ‘ that’s not for me, that can’t possibly be for me’ and just completely disengage.”

TPR said that so far it has delivered its guidance to thousands of schemes, with very positive take up, but added that there is “only so far it can go” when it comes to an educative approach to improving good governance.

The regulator said it would launching a number of consultations on how to improve governance, including the possibility of making it mandatory for all trustee boards to have at least one professional trustee sitting on it.

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