§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many company occupational pension schemes, covering how many workers, have been closed since 1 December 2002.[137622]
§ Malcolm WicksInformation on pension schemes is held by the Pension Schemes Registry that is maintained by the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA). Some data on the number of occupational pension schemes, and number of recorded members in these schemes, recorded by the registry as having closed 149W to new members between 1 October 2002 and 30 June 2003 are provided in the table. The figures relate to the position as at September 2003.
Number of occupational schemes, and number of members in occupational schemes, recorded on Pension Schemes Registry as
becoming closed between 1 October 2002 and 30 June 2003
Date Number of schemes
Number of members
1 October 2002–31 December 2002 113 46,172 1 January 2003–31 March 2003 122 122,283 1 April 2003–30 June 2003 78 44,924 Total 313 213,379 Notes
1. The Pension Schemes Registry (PSR) is not designed or intended to provide a comprehensive or continuous statistical record of the status of schemes. The PSR registers schemes for tracing purposes and collects the levy from pension schemes, including those in the process of winding-up. New scheme data are being reported to the PSR on a continuous basis. Therefore, the figures are subject to continuous revision. When a scheme has changed status, the previous status of the scheme is not recorded on the registry. Schemes have up to 12 months to notify OPRA of any status change. The data in the table do not include any schemes that may have changed their benefit type (money purchase, salary related or hybrid) but not their status code (from open to closed).
2. A closed scheme is a registerable scheme to which no new members may be admitted, but existing members can continue to make contributions and accrue benefits. The data above do not contain any schemes that are either frozen, winding up or wound up.
3. The data in the table relate to private sector occupational pension schemes. In addition to data on occupational schemes, the registry also collects data on personal pension and public sector schemes. These schemes are not included in the table
Source
OPRA.