News & Events

Pensions

CIGA 2000 – The Moratorium – are all defined benefit pension scheme contributions exempt from the payment holiday?

Following on from their previous article considering the scope of the moratorium from a lender’s perspective, Andrew Spink QC, Justina Stewart and Saaman Pourghadiri consider the thorny question of whether all defined benefit pension scheme contributions are exempt from the payment holiday under the moratorium. In this note Andrew Spink QC, Justina Stewart and Saaman Pourghadiri consider one important issue for insolvency and pensions practitioners which arises from the Moratorium in Part A1 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (“IA 86”) introduced by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (“CIGA 2020”).  The note sets out various arguments going to the vexed issue of which forms of employer contribution to an occupational pension scheme fall within the payment holiday under the…

Legal Blogs 15 Oct, 2020

Practical Law (Pensions); “Univar v Smith; first contested pensions rectification trial in 8 years”

Judgment was recently handed down by the High Court in Univar v Smith & Ors. Michael Uberoi’s article looking at some of the key issues in the judgment has been published in Practical Law (Pensions). Univar v Smith & Ors [2020] EWHC 1596 (Ch) was the first contested application for the rectification of pension scheme documentation for over eight years, and was also the first judgment by the High Court to apply the Court of Appeal’s new, subjective test for rectification, as declared by Leggatt LJ in FSHC Group Holdings Ltd v GLAS [2019] EWCA Civ 1361. The 15 day trial involved cross-examination of over a dozen trustee and company witnesses who were the relevant decision-makers for the scrutinised Deed,…

News 11 Sep, 2020

Successful pro bono representation before the Financial Ombudsman

Chloë Bell has successfully provided pro bono representation before the Financial Ombudsman through Advocate, the Bar’s national charity for free legal assistance from volunteer barristers. Chloë Bell has provided pro bono representation to an individual who suffered a shortfall in a pension transfer quotation due to negligent advice and services provided by his financial advisors. The individual’s advisors sent incorrect documentation to the entity responsible for providing the quotation. When the correct documentation was eventually provided the original quotation had expired and the individual’s guaranteed minimum value quotation was lower. Representation was provided (through Advocate) before the Financial Ombudsman. Chloë provided submissions on the contractual and tortious duties owed by the financial advisors, the breach of those duties and the…

News 27 Aug, 2020

Watch the Webinar: Indexation and the courts’ recent wrestles with RPI

Outer Temple Chambers collaborated with Richard Gibson of Barnett Waddingham LLP to look at the current and future actuarial and legal landscape of inflation. Watch the recorded webinar here. What is the outlook for inflation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and the various government support schemes for businesses? Will there be renewed pressure on schemes to explore options to switch out of RPI-based escalation? A run of cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court since 2012 have confirmed that in principle scheme powers may be available to switch from RPI to CPI, following the lead taken by the State schemes (and the statutory minima for revaluation and LPI increases) in 2010. But these…

Webinars & Recordings 28 Jul, 2020

Second Court of Appeal Judgment in Safeway’s long running pensions equalisation case

On 13 July 2020 the Court of Appeal handed down its second judgment in Safeway Ltd v Newton (previously [2017] EWCA Civ 1482]) concerning the date on which the Normal Pension Ages applicable under the Safeway Pension Scheme were equalised at 65. Safeway Limited v 1) Andrew Newton 2) SPTL [2020] EWCA Civ 869: equalisation pursuant to section 62 Pensions Act 1995 The Court of Appeal held that section 62 Pensions Act 1995 went further than Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome and was an effective measure to close the Barber window. The Background On 1 December 1991 it was announced to Scheme members that Normal Pension Ages (NPAs) would henceforth be 65 years for men and women. On…

News 13 Jul, 2020

Naomi Ling, as specialist pensions counsel, successfully defends DfT in High Court

As part of a team of counsel, Naomi Ling has successful defended Department for Transport against a challenge to their process of awarding rail franchises. Naomi Ling acted as specialist pensions counsel as part of an 11 strong counsel team defending the Department for Transport against a challenge to the 2019 rail franchising process. Arriva, Stagecoach and Virgin Trains (the latter acting as part of a consortium) were disqualified from the competitions from the East Midlands and South Eastern and West Coast Partnership rail franchises because they had failed to submit bids that were compliant with the pensions requirements. They challenged this decision, claiming that the Secretary of State had acted unlawfully in requiring them to assume uncertain future pensions…

News 18 Jun, 2020

Employment Webinar: Watch Lydia Seymour Discuss Pension Claims in the Employment Tribunal

Lydia Seymour presents an Employment Law Webinar on Pension claims in the Employment Tribunal. As part of the 28 barristers – 14 day Employment Law Series, Lydia Seymour presents a Q&A Webinar on Pension claims in the Employment Tribunal. Lydia recently presented this webinar in a series of employment law seminars put together by Outer Temple’s Daniel Barnett. In this webinar Lydia Seymour looks at pensions cases in the Employment Tribunal focussing particularly on auto-enrolment and discrimination.  She discusses the new employment rights which have been introduced along with the auto-enrolment regime, and how these rights may become more frequently litigated as a result of the pensions implications of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.  The second part of the webinar…

Webinars & Recordings 5 Jun, 2020

High Profile Financial Services and Pensions Judgment; Adams v Options SIPP UK LLP

Adams v Options SIPP UK LLP (formerly Carey Pensions UK LLP); Nicholas Hill comments on the Judgment two years in the making: clarity and relief for SIPP operators and execution only financial services businesses. In March 2018 the Chancery Division heard the high-profile test case on the liability of Carey Pensions UK LLP, a provider and administrator of self-invested pension plans (SIPPs), to the Claimant investor, whose underlying investments were alleged to have been manifestly unsuitable. A little over two years later Judgment has finally been handed down. The SIPP industry (and indeed a wide range of institutions conducting business on an execution-only basis) will welcome the Judgment. Case Note Nicholas Hill has written a short case note considering the Judgment…

Legal Blogs 21 May, 2020

Keith Bryant QC successful in resisting High Court human rights and age discrimination challenge to police pension scheme

In this case concerning police pensions, the claimant married couple claimed that it was a breach of their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and unlawful age discrimination not to grant widow’s benefit to Mrs Carter, if Mr Carter dies before her, on the basis that they only married after Mr Carter retired from police service in 1977. Police pensions are governed by statutory rules under which members have a right of appeal on certain matters to the Crown Court but, in a judgment handed down on 13 June 2019 (R (Carter) v Chelmsford Crown Court and others [2019] EWHC 1484 (Admin), [2019] ICR 1470), the Divisional Court (Coulson LJ and Andrew Baker J) held that this right…

News 21 Jan, 2020

Teresa Rosen Peacocke published in the Trust Quarterly Review

Teresa Rosen Peacocke has authored an article published in the Trust Quarterly Review, titled ‘Under the Influence’. The article is a discussion of two England and Wales cases and the relationship necessary to raise a presumption of undue influence. Teresa discusses two contrasting cases concerning the question of whether there are limits in principle on when and how a relationship of influence can arise for the purposes of the doctrine of presumed undue influence. The first case Teresa examines is Macklin v Dowsett, in which the England and Wales Court of Appeal allowed an appeal on the basis that a relationship of influence sufficient to ground a finding of presumed undue influence arose in the course of the transaction under scrutiny.…

External Publications 3 Dec, 2019

Stephen Doherty successful in $14 million Dubai arbitration

Stephen recently acted for a high profile master developer in proceedings under the rules of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC). The arbitration related to the sale and development of commercial real estate, and the provision of infrastructure by the master developer. Stephen acted as lead counsel over the course of a four day hearing, which heard evidence from a number of expert witnesses, and successfully obtained an award exceeding $14 million on behalf of his client. Stephen has recently returned to chambers following a secondment to the arbitration team of a leading UAE law firm. His UK practice is focused on commercial litigation, particularly within the field of pensions and financial services. Stephen is also a registered advocate before…

News 12 Jul, 2019

Naomi Ling wins compensation for police officers caught by pensions tax trap

The High Court has today allowed an appeal from the Pensions Ombudsman in the case of five police officers who were hit with a massive pensions tax when they accepted offers of civilian employment within a month of retirement before the age of 55. The officers lost their protected pension age and their lump sums and pensions were deemed unauthorised payments. The High Court found that the pensions administrators should have known that this would be the case but had nevertheless sent the officers misleading information suggesting that their lump sums would be tax free. The pensions authorities are now liable to compensate the police officers for their losses. This is an important case relating to the duty of pensions…

News 11 Jul, 2019

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