Changes to member-nominated trustee rules delayed

Union pension activists have reacted angrily to the govenment's decision to defer proposed changes to regulations on the appointment of member-nominated trustees.

The Department for Work and Pensions has said that the changes have been put on hold until the Pickering review of pensions simplification has been completed.

The Independent Pensions Research Group (IPRG), which brings together union officers and lay activists, actuaries and other pensions professionals said the decision to delay was misguided and suspects that the "real reason behind it is insurance industry hostility to the plans."

The IPRG says changes to the regulations are urgently needed: "The existing regulations are by common consent one of the worst-drafted Statutory Instruments to come out of the Pensions Act and badly need rewriting to make them workable. They lack some very basic safeguards, such as requirements that ballots are seen to be properly conducted."

* The IPRG and Northern Pensions Resource Group can be contacted on 0191 232 2968.