United Kingdom

UK - Australian pensions expert John Piggott is to give the Watson Wyatt lecture on the effectiveness of compulsion on March 29.

UK - Legislation to make businesses accountable for ethical and socially responsible behaviour has been blocked by the government.

UK - Corporate car schemes are losing their appeal, Mercer Human Resource Consulting claims.

UK - The £530m Shropshire County Council Pension Fund has appointed Deutsche Asset Management and Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM) to bond mandates.

UK - Former Blagdon Pension Scheme chairman John Gillum has attacked the government for refusing to consider plans that would prevent solvent employers reneging on pension promises.

UK - Companies' employee benefit departments will absorb traditional pension divisions, Brambles Industries group pensions director Ralph Turner predicts.

UK - Gissings has launched a healthcare and risk benefit product to help employers measure cost efficiency.

UK - Insight Investment and Mellon Global Investments has joined the Institutional Money Market Funds Association, taking its total membership up to 30.

UK - Multimanager specialist Permal Investment Management has launched a natural resources hedge fund aimed at institutional investors.

UK - The Dividend and Derivatives Directory (DaDD) has added the complete range of FTSE Group indices to The Index Management Service (TIMS).