May 2008 Dear Stakeholder We recognise the value of providing practical guidance to trustees responsible for schemes in the Pension Protection Fund assessment period. We want to encourage good practice and to ensure that all parties involved in the process can provide, at the earliest opportunity, certainty to members of schemes in assessment about the benefits they will receive. The Trustee Good Practice Guide sets out practical guidance to the assessment period and the principles we expect trustees to adhere to throughout the assessment process. This will help trustees understand better their roles and responsibilities and ensure that our objectives are consistently achieved. These objectives are laid out in the regulatory statement between the PPF, the Pensions Regulator and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - This guidance is aimed at all eligible occupational pension schemes whose employer has become insolvent. It applies equally to both lay and professional trustees and has been developed taking into account the views of pensions experts with experience of the assessment process as well as our own experience of the common issues experienced by trustees during an assessment period. A Trustee Knowledge and Understanding toolkit module on winding up a defined benefit scheme with an insolvent employer is currently being developed by the Pensions Regulator. This will complement our Trustee Good Practice Guide and will give guidance on the practical applications of the principles we have set out. The guidance will be updated on a regular basis based on feedback we receive from industry and as good practice develops. Following the consultation process, it will be released as an interactive web-based document supported by a downloadable PDF document.
How to respond to the consultationWe would welcome feedback on the attached guidance in general, but we are particularly interested in your views on the following areas: 1.Do you agree with the five key principles we expect trustees to adhere to? Are there additional principles we ought to consider for inclusion in the guide which would assist trustees in completing the assessment period in a timely manner? 2.Do you agree with the concept of performance management? How can the Pension Protection Fund best develop a transparent and objective process to inform the Pension Regulator’s post appointment review process? 3.Any additional matter we ought to address as part of the guidance? When considering the guide please be mindful that the document is intended to be complementary to the Pension Regulators’ Trustee Knowledge and Understanding module for defined benefit schemes with an insolvent employer, which addresses the process requirements of an assessment period from a trustee’s perspective in greater detail.
Submitting your responseReponses can be submitted by: Email
Trusteeguidance@ppf.gsi.gov.uk By Post
Pension Protection Fund
Knollys House
17 Addiscombe Road
Croydon
Surrey
CRO 6SR Your feedback may be shared internally and with other Government bodies. We may also wish to publish any feedback as part of our response to the consultation paper. If you wish for your comment to remain anonymous or confidential please state this clearly in your response. When responding please state the capacity in which you are responding i.e. as an individual, if you are responding on behalf of an organisation please state which organisation. We would be grateful for comments no later than Friday, 25 July 2008.
Next StepsWe will be taking the contents of this consultation around the country in May in a roadshow format to encourage open dialogue on the contents of the guide in advance of the deadline for submission of responses. Submissions will be acknowledged. A formal response will be issued to the responses submitted, individual responses to submissions will not be issued.  Partha Dasgupta
Chief Executive | 
