United Kingdom

SCOTLAND - Women trade unionists across Scotland have called for reform of equal pay legislation to halt "pensions poverty".

UK - Performance measurer, The WM Company, has hired Michael Walsh as its new managing director from HSBC.

UK/IRELAND - Aquila Group Holdings, the pensions administrator, has hired Adrian Howells as group marketing manager.

UK - Lay trustees should have a bigger role in the running of pensions schemes and receive greater government backing, ministers have been told.

UK - O&M has added with-profits data to its switching profiler product in a bid to help financial advisers with reviews of "old-style" pensions.

UK - Ministers have admitted proposals to amend fund distribution during scheme wind-ups are unworkable and are drafting in lawyers to help resolve problems.

UK - Regulators will continue to monitor trustees at shipping giant Maersk despite its decision to pay full pensions benefits for workers at its Sea-Land Service subsidiary.

UK - The government's decision to grant the pensions ombudsman eight extra staff will put future performance of the office under scrutiny, lawyers believe.

UK - Henderson Global Investors has appointed Eddy Hargreaves as head of company research.

UK - Corporate credit ratings could be used to gauge financial health when calculating the annual levy on schemes for the pension protection fund (PPF), pensions minister Malcolm Wicks said.