Trustee role & TKU

Codes of practice and guidance on the varied aspects of your trustee role, including scope guidance for schemes of all sizes.

  • E-learning: Trustee toolkit

    Sign up for our free e-learning programme for trustees for a complete overview of your role

  • Bite-sized learning: Learning resources

    Brief bite-sized learning modules giving an overview on: record-keeping, scheme governance, transfer incentives, multi-employer schemes and the employer covenant

  • Guidance: Trustee knowledge and understanding

    This guidance sets out the scope of TKU and includes the relevant scope guidance documents, broadly speaking lists of items that the pensions industry considers that trustees need to know and understand

  • Code of practice: Trustee knowledge and understanding (TKU)

    This code is designed to help trustees by setting out what is meant by knowledge and understanding in the legislation and the scope of the knowledge and understanding requirements

  • Guidance: Trustee guidance

    Outlines some of the wide-ranging responsibilities placed on pension scheme trustees and some of the powers you usually have

  • Information: Independent trustee register

    Find out about our independent trustee register, how to view it and what you need to do to join the register

  • Consultation: Changes to our Trustee Register (PDF, 222kb, 23 pages)

    Read our consultation response to the changes to the independent trustee register

Automatic enrolment

Scheme governance

Guidance and learning resources to help you ensure good scheme governance and administration and the effective management of risk.

Defined benefit (DB) funding

Guidance, codes of practice and reports to be aware of in ensuring your DB scheme is well run and well funded. 

  • DB campaign: Identifying your statutory employer

    Published: September 2011

    The importance of identifying the statutory employer to your scheme - bite-sized e-learning plus a detailed statement

  • Statement: Identifying your statutory employer (PDF, 78kb, 7 pages)

    Published: July 2011

    Statement to help you and your advisers understand why it is important to be clear who legally stands behind your scheme and what you need to do

  • Statement: Employer related investments (PDF, 88kb, 6 pages)

    Published: November 2010

    Statement to help you and others who are involved in scheme funding negotiations and decisions about a scheme's investment strategy

  • Statement: The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) (PDF, 47kb, 2 pages)

    Published: July 2010

    Statement to help you manage changes to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI)

  • Statement: Understanding employer support for DB schemes (PDF, 71kb, 4 pages)

    Published: June 2010

    Sets out the regulator's main expectations of trustees with regard to the employer covenant

  • E-learning: Trustee toolkit

    Free e-learning programme - includes modules on 'DB recovery plans, contributions and funding principles', 'How a DB scheme works' and 'Funding your DB scheme'

  • Guidance: Trustee guidance

    Includes guidance for trustees on the requirements of the scheme funding process, in particular the trustees' duty to ensure that the right money is paid into the scheme at the right time

  • Guidance: Abandonment of DB pension schemes

    This guidance outlines how trustees should deal with a proposal which involves the abandonment of a defined benefit pension scheme

  • Guidance: Clearance

    This guidance provides support to trustees and employers when dealing with events that may impact upon their pension scheme, and when there is an application for a clearance statement.

  • Guidance: Incentive exercises

    This guidance relates to transfer incentives and other incentive exercises that are sometimes offered by employers to members of defined benefit (DB) schemes.

  • Guidance: Monitoring employer support

    This guidance is for trustees and managers of all occupational pension schemes with a DB element and sets out practice that we expect trustees to follow in assessing, monitoring and taking action on employer covenant.

  • Guidance: Mortality assumptions

    This guidance outlines how trustees should go about deciding on mortality assumptions in an actuarial valuation for a defined benefit pension scheme

  • Guidance: Multi-employer schemes and employer departures

    This guidance is to help trustees and employers of multi-employer schemes understand the different mechanisms by which an employer can depart from the scheme

  • FAQs: Scheme funding FAQs

    Questions and answers on scheme funding issues

  • Case studies: Scheme funding and clearance case studies

    These scheme funding case studies (original versions published in 'Scheme funding: an analysis of recovery plans' in December 2008) demonstrate how the regulator, employers and trustees have worked together to resolve funding issues

  • Guidance: Transfer values

    This guidance helps trustees of private sector occupational pension schemes providing defined benefits to understand the requirements for calculating transfer values

  • Code of practice: Funding defined benefits

    This code of practice assists trustees who must comply with the requirements found in Part 3 of the Pensions Act 2004 relating to the funding of defined benefits

  • Code of practice: Notifiable events

    An explanation of the notifiable events designed to give the Pensions Regulator early warning of a possible call on the Pension Protection Fund

Defined contribution (DC) arrangements

Guidance and resources to help you to do your best to help members who are retiring make the right choices about their savings and pensions.

Reporting & registering

Use Exchange to share information with us about your scheme - register a new scheme, submit a scheme return, pay the levy, report a breach of law or noitifiable event, submit a recovery plan - includes useful FAQs. 

  • Code of practice: Reporting breaches of the law

    The requirement to report is a vital part of the regulatory framework. Whistleblowing reports are a key source of information that we use to fulfil our regulatory responsibilities for work-based pensions.

  • Online service: Exchange

    Find out all you can do on Exchange - register a new scheme, submit a scheme return, pay the levy, report a breach of law or notifiable event

  • Online service: Scheme return

    Guidance on completing and submitting the scheme return using Exchange - includes FAQs

  • E-learning: Trustee toolkit

    Free e-learning programme - includes a module on 'Pensions law'

Pensions landscape

Publications providing an in-depth look at the pensions landscape including data, research reports and surveys, plus links to other organisations involved in pensions.

Employer role

Guidance providing you with a useful explanation of the employer role and how you can work together.

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