United Kingdom

UK - Workers at chemical firm Rhodia are being balloted over industrial action on the closure of the firm's final salary scheme to new entrants.

UK - Schroder Investment Management's £384m final salary scheme has a £40m deficit, preliminary results of its triennial valuation by Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow show.

UK - The government has thrown its weight behind corporate social responsibility and expanded the national contact point for complaints against companies not adhering to SRI guidelines.

UK - Senior fund managers have seen their salaries and bonuses plummet in the past year.

UK - Safeway chairman David Webster has a pension pot of £7.6m - an increase of £1.37m from last year.

UK - Buck Consultants has bolstered its HR division with the appointment of Tim Knight as a principal in London.

UK - Work and pensions secretary Andrew Smith is likely to be replaced shortly in a Cabinet reshuffle, sources have told IPN's sister publication, Professional Pensions.

UK - Actuaries have challenged the government to scrap the pensions Green Paper and start again from scratch.

UK - Scheme buy-out valuations - which could reveal deficits much higher than controversial FRS17 figures - will become compulsory if proposals from the Actuarial Profession are granted approval.

UK - Hundreds of deferred pensioners left out of pocket after their struggling employers closed down marched on Downing Street to demand compensation.