§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pension schemes have started the winding-up process in each year since 1997; and how many pension scheme members have been affected in each year as a result, broken down into(a) pensioners and (b) people who had not retired when the winding-up began. [78333]
§ Mr. McCartneyThe information requested is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.
201W
Year Number of schemes started to wind up Number of members in schemes started to wind up 1997 84 10,271 1998 113 2,309 1999 4,287 101.236 2000 1,903 74,403 2001 2,206 73,038 20021 1,405 40,158 1 To date Notes:
1. The information is based on data held by the Pension Schemes Registry (PSR). It includes all types of pension schemes. The figures are for calendar years.
2. The figures are the sum of those live schemes that have reported they are winding up and those schemes accepted by the PSR as winding up. The latter are schemes where the principal employer has gone into liquidation and they were the sole trustees. The figures do not include schemes that may not have reported to the PSR.
3. The PSR system holds information on the most recent change in scheme status, so schemes which were frozen or closed in earlier years may figure in the wind up figures for a later year. Trustees are required to report changes within 12 months so there is likely to be a lag before the data reflects what is happening currently.
4. Before 1997 figures for starting the wind up of schemes were not categorised:they were subsumed within figures for live scheme. The category of schemes in the process of wind up was introduced gradually. The category for schemes notifying that they were winding up was introduced before the category for schemes accepted by the PSR as winding up. Where an actual date was unavailable the current date was used.
5. The information related to schemes, not employers. Some employers operate several schemes.
6. The numbers of members shown include active, deferred and pensioner members. PSR does not hold data broken down by type of member, as this is not required for their purposes.