Legislation

UK - Marconi will make a £185m cash injection to its UK pension plan and set aside a further £490m, if the planned £1.2bn sale of its telecommunications equipment and international services businesses to Ericsson goes ahead.

UK - Company pension scheme rebates are "inadequate" and should rise by at least 25% or £2bn annually, according to Watson Wyatt.

UK - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has warned it will not be rushed into making disclosures on the eventual cost of providing protection for pensions.

UK - Standard & Poor's has issued guidelines aimed at helping UK pension schemes formulate both policy and a timeframe to eliminate scheme deficits.

UK - Companies need to take the lead in managing employees' expectations for death-in-service benefits ahead of pensions simplification, according to Watson Wyatt partner David Cross.

UK - Mercer Investment Consulting has lost a consulting brief with cosmetics company L'Oreal on the back of a tender which saw the £120m mandate awarded to Buck Consultants.

UK - Pension trustees and employers could leave themselves critically exposed financially if they do not address a trend by life companies to cap their total exposure to death-in-service benefits.

AUSTRALIA - The federal government has announced it will abolish the superannuation surcharge from July to provide tax relief to high income earners.

US - The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has called for better promotion of employment opportunities for the elderly in the US, in the face of rapid population ageing and the trend towards early retirement.

UK - New debt regulations for occupational pension schemes lack clarity and contain unnecessary requirements for trustees, according to Lane Clark and Peacock (LCP).