TPR undertaking internal review after Norton Motorcycles case
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) chief executive Charles Counsell has written to Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) chairman Stephen Timms responding to questions over how the watchdog handled issues around the Norton Motorcycles pension schemes.
The comes after the WPC sent TPR a letter following The Pensions Ombudsman's decision to uphold complaints relating to the Norton Motorcycles pension schemes.
Counsell said TPR was, as a result of the issues raised, undertaking an internal review to identify if there are lessons to be learned in how it addresses conflicts of interest.
He noted however that, while the regulator does not have the resources to review every small scheme, it does intend to do more work in the future looking at the governance issues around smaller pension schemes.
Responding to the letter, Timms said: "TPR's own research has shown the governance standards of small pension schemes to be consistently lower than their larger counterparts. Setting up small schemes has provided opportunities to scammers in the past and we will be looking at this in more detail in our upcoming inquiry."
The WPC announced it would investigate pension scams in July as the first strand of a three-part inquiry into the impact of the pension freedoms and the protection of pension savers.
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