Who will face the firing squad?

Did the timetable take ministers by surprise? Administering authorities, employers, and pensions administration software suppliers were told they would be given at least a 12-month lead-in period to prepare for the new Local Government Pension Scheme. They did not get it.

Nearly six months ago Local Government Employers expressed its concerns about the lack of any real progress.

And chairman of the group’s local government pensions committee Trevor Jones has now sent another letter to the DCLG that sets out a depressing catalogue of failure.

The LGPS (administration) regulations – which had been promised for May last year – and the LGPS (transitional provisions) regulations 2008 were not issued until February 21, only a little over five weeks before the new scheme came into effect.

And it gets worse. Jones points out that while the benefit, membership and contribution regulations were issued on April 4, fundamental amendments were not issued until two weeks after the scheme came into being. And while Government Actuary Department guidance on trivial commutation and additional regular contributions was issued in February, all other guidance to the scheme – which had been promised by the end of 2007 – is still awaited.

The fact that the new-look scheme has been introduced at all is little short of a miracle and testament to the hard work, skill and expertise of local authority pension departments.

But the DCLG’s performance has – to borrow one of Sir Alan Sugar’s favourite terms from BBC’s The Apprentice – been a shambles. Whether anyone will now face Sir Alan’s ultimate sanction, remains to be seen.