§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many occupational pension schemes were(a) opened, (b) closed and (c) wound-up in each year between 1979 and 2000. [157073]
§ Mr. Rooker[holding answer 9 April 2001]: The information requested is in the table.
624WSignificant fluctuations in the number of occupational pension schemes opened, closed and wound up in any particular year largely take place in years when alterations were made to the pensions regulatory regime. For example, the Social Security Act 1986, which came into force in 1988, permitted contracting-out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme on a money purchase basis for the first time; the Pensions Act 1995, which came into force in 1997, contained measures to increase security for members of occupational pension schemes.
It is important to note that the increases and decreases in these figures do not necessarily reflect large alterations in the overall coverage of occupational pension schemes. For example, most of the schemes registered in the late 1980's and the vast majority of the schemes wound-up in the late 1990's were small schemes with few members.
Occupational pension schemes opened, closed and wound up in each year between 1979 and 2000 Year Number of schemes first registered in that year1 Number of occupational schemes with a frozen or closed status and a date of change within a particular year2 Number of schemes that wound up in that year3 1979 4,766 401 10 1980 4,683 400 13 1981 4,628 350 18 1982 5,717 452 22 1983 6,768 546 28 1984 8,608 698 36 1985 10,959 770 37 1986 11,020 780 51 1987 12,415 879 66 1988 22,268 1,686 93 1989 11,493 747 133 1990 7,801 477 208 1991 12,367 636 640 1992 8,140 414 722 1993 6,602 332 924 1994 7,529 258 1,199 1995 6,603 190 1,624 1996 8,339 175 3,009 1997 6,195 181 25,294 1998 5,007 148 6,580 1999 3,559 62 7,859 2000 2,757 44 4,677 1 Figures are based on registrable date which is the closest available information to indicate the start date of the scheme 2 Figures may not be entirely accurate as there may be many schemes on the Registry's database that were once closed to new members but have now completed their winding-up 3 Figures are based on the wound-up date of occupational pension schemes. Many of these schemes will have begun the wind-up process in an earlier year Source:
The Pensions Schemes Registry