The Pensions Regulator

Code of practice 07
Trustee knowledge and understanding (TKU)

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Updating knowledge and understanding

46. The legislative requirement is that trustees must have the appropriate knowledge and understanding, which means that trustees should keep their knowledge and understanding up to date.
47. The regulator strongly recommends that trustees should regularly review their own knowledge and understanding against the scope guidance and undertake learning to fill any gaps that they expose. Learning programmes designed to update knowledge should help trustees with this activity. The regulator will review its scope guidance from time to time and will publish any updates on its website. It is recommended that the trustees' own updating regime should take place at least annually.
48. Further, any well thought out learning programme will have the facility to 'dip in and out' for trustees who have passed through the programme so that they can remind themselves of what they learned some time previously and avail themselves of the most up to date version in the process of reviewing the learning.
49. Also, and in addition to annual review, trustees may find that they need to acquire new areas of knowledge in the event of either internal or external scheme changes, or if the trustee takes on a new function.
50. Internal changes which may prompt a revisiting of knowledge or an acquisition of new knowledge could include a change in the ownership of the employer, in its financial viability or its relationship with a parent company. Other possibilities include accumulating an unexpected surplus or deficit or a proposed closure of the scheme to new members.
51. External changes which may prompt trustees to look again at their knowledge base could include changes in relevant investment markets, in the law, or in the urgent topical issues suggested by the Pensions Regulator in its own updating modules.
52. Learning programmes should set trustees on the right path for satisfying these updating aspects of the regime. They should allow for revisiting the programme in the future and also signpost sources of further reading and learning material which trustees may need over time for a variety of reasons.

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