PP Show 2011: TPR will not bend on 100% data accuracy target

The Pensions Regulator has confirmed that addresses will remain under the category of common data and be subject to its stringent data targets.

Responding to questions from concerned delegates, case team leader for defined contribution, administration and governance Victoria Holmes said the regular would not shift on the matter.

TPR's data targets stipulate that schemes must achieve 100% accuracy for new data and 95% accuracy for legacy data in several core fields - including member addresses - by December 2012.

But several delegates said that this was impossible, as members often failed to notify their scheme when they move, and that responsibility for updating address data should rest with the members.

Holmes responded: "We understand it's difficult but we think it's important, so this isn't going to change. We want to see that you have plans in place for tracing members and that you are making best endeavours."

Holmes reiterated the watchdog's commitment to improving administration standards, saying it was the "keystone" of a good scheme.

She added that TPR was targeting DC schemes because of the complexity - with 12 times more transactions per member than DB schemes - the speed with which things could unravel, and the cost of putting things right.

Holmes said schemes were making good progress on meeting the 2012 targets, with 67% of trustee boards having a process in place to do so, and 23% planning to introduce one. A third were aware of their common data score.

Holmes said: "We're really pleased to see there is a lot of talk about data at the moment, and it's great that we're getting lots of calls and being asked questions all the time."

She added that the regulator had no plans to extend targets to conditional data as it understood this could vary for different schemes, it did not want to be too prescriptive, and the common data targets needed time to bed in.