Government Actuary's Department
Since the mid-1950s, the Government Actuary's Department has produced a series of surveys of the occupational pension schemes of the United Kingdom.
The first survey was conducted as a result of the Phillips Committee's work ('Report of the Phillips Committee on the Economic and Financial Problems for the Provision for Old Age', 1953), and was produced in 1958. Until 2004, surveys were conducted every four or five years, but since then the survey has been published annually.
The most recent publication in this series is the thirteenth (2005) survey, which was published in June 2006. The main focus of this year's survey is on administration, communication and expenses of private-sector occupational pension schemes. It also updates many of the statistics of previous surveys, including the number of members of private sector occupational schemes and estimates of the number of private sector occupational schemes in existence. This year's survey does not cover public sector occupational schemes, allowing for a greater number of private sector schemes to be included in the sample.
Taken as a whole, the surveys have covered all aspects of occupational pension schemes during the last 50 years. The questions asked by each survey have generally been the same as those in previous surveys, allowing a good degree of comparison between surveys for time series analysis. However, some changes are always necessary from survey to survey as new developments occur in the pensions world and old practices die out.
As a result of the Morris Review of the actuarial profession in 2004/05, future surveys will be conducted by the Office for National Statistics. The review recommended the transfer of responsibility in order to achieve greater coordination and integration of pension scheme statistics.
Latest results available from the GAD website
This page last revised: Thursday, 15 June 2006
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