7 Days is a weekly round up of developments in pensions, normally published on Monday afternoons. We collate this information from key industry sources, such as the DWP, HMRC and TPR.

In this 7 Days

ICAEW publishes guidance following Virgin Media ruling

The ICAEW shared new guidance on 13 February 2025 following the Court of Appeal ruling in the Virgin Media case, which is primarily aimed at sponsoring employers and their auditors but “may be of use” to trustees.  There is currently “much uncertainty” about how the ruling should be reflected in scheme and employer reporting and it notes that another case is due to be heard this year, which may provide more clarity.

There are three approaches that most trustees are considering:

  • a wait-and-see approach
  • an information-gathering approach, or
  • performing a detailed analysis.

The guidance offers reasons for adopting each approach but makes it clear that the course of action “will depend on the specific circumstances of each scheme”.

It also explains the different potential accounting treatments under IFRS or FRS102, as well as considerations for auditors of sponsoring employers’ financial statements.

TPR Chair to step down in July

Sarah Smart, the Chair of TPR, intends to step down in July 2025 having been on TPR’s Board since 2016. Smart was originally the Senior Independent Director before becoming Chair.  The DWP will search for her successor in accordance with the Government’s public appointments guidance and will work towards a transition over the next six months.

Pensions Data Project publishes report on member data

The Pensions Data Project has published a report on “lessons learned from matching pension provider membership data”. The Pensions Data Project is an initiative set up by a small group of master trusts and the PPI with the aim of creating a research database to gain an insight into people’s saving patterns. The report, which uses anonymous data provided by the five master trusts, covers findings from the “private beta stage of the project”, with a full report expected later in the year.

The report found that:

  • around 40% of scheme memberships match with membership of another provider, demonstrating the likelihood of individuals having multiple pensions pots,
  • when combining data across providers, the portion of exact matches was high at 85% although some partial matches will require further verification, suggesting that pensions dashboards will be able to “confidently display a good number of pensions for an individual”.