A summary of The Pensions Regulator (TPR) Board meeting in February 2023.
Apologies, welcomes, declarations of conflicts of interest
The Chair welcomed everybody to the meeting, including a delegate from the Pensions Protection Fund (PPF) and a participant in the UK Regulators’ Network (UKRN) NextGen Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) programme as observers. A declaration of interest had been received in advance of the meeting in respect of the pensions dashboard agenda item.
Chair's update
The Chair updated the Board on recent activities, including the appointment of Nausicaa Delfas as the new TPR CEO.
TPR had been working with UKRN on the NextGen NEDs programme and for the next year would host two regular observers, one at Board and one at the Audit Risk and Assurance Committee.
It was recorded that the Board had approved items by correspondence since the last meeting, including the publication of the General Code of Practice.
Key policy updates
This regular item provided the Board with an at-a-glance overview of policy workstreams, including detail on emerging or lower-priority areas, on which they might not otherwise be sighted.
CEO report
The CEO updated the Board on developments in the area of liability driven investments (LDI), including the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee's published recommendations to Ministers. TPR continued to work with the Bank of England and the FCA in this area, and this work would come to the Board for review in due course.
The Board was informed about senior people changes including the impending departure in March of David Fairs as Executive Director of Regulatory Policy, Analysis and Advice (RPAA), the appointment of Louise Davey as interim Director of RPAA and the appointment from 19 June of John Abbott as Executive Director of Digital, Data and Technology.
Superfunds
The Board received an update on progress towards a statutory regime for superfunds.
Defined Benefit (DB) funding code
The Board was updated on the response to the consultation and the likely timeline for implementation of regulations and the code.
Pensions dashboard
The Board received an update on progress with the Money and Pensions Advice Service’s (MaPS) programmes for delivery of the dashboard, to which TPR contributes.
Corporate Plan
The Board discussed a high-level outline of TPR’s Corporate Plan which, subject to final Board approval, is due for publication in April 2023. The Board agreed that, moving forward, the Corporate Plan should be focused at a strategic level on saver outcomes, key outcome indicators and the market. They further agreed that TPR will therefore continue to measure KPIs, report against them and publish them at the same time as the Corporate Plan, but separately.
Public bodies review
It was noted that the public bodies review of TPR was now under way.
Supervision strategy
The Board received an update on work to review TPR’s supervision strategy to ensure it was fit for the future and reflected TPR’s strategic direction. The full report was currently being written and members would have the opportunity at the next Board to share their thoughts and comments.
Any other business
None