Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA)
Opra's Pension Schemes Registry (PSR) in Newcastle upon Tyne has the statutory responsibility for obtaining and recording details of all tax-approved occupational pension schemes (including public service schemes) and personal pension schemes with two or more members. The purpose of this is to provide a free public service to help people trace pension schemes that they have lost contact with. Opra can supply up-to-date contact names and addresses for these schemes, but no details of individual pension rights are held. The information kept by the PSR is also used by Opra’s regulatory arm, based in Brighton.
In addition, the PSR collects the General Levy - which pays for Opra, OPAS (the Pensions Advisory Service) and the Pensions Ombudsman - and the Compensation Levy, when appropriate, which meets the cost of compensation paid by the Pensions Compensation Board. Compensation is payable when schemes are underfunded compared with the MFR due to fraud or theft and where the employer is insolvent.
In order to provide the above service all trustees (or anyone acting on behalf of a trustee) are legally required to provide certain information by completing a registration form. Using this information we compile and maintain a register established under Regulations. The register - a bespoke computer system - contains the following information in so far as it is applicable to the scheme:
- the name and address of the scheme;
- the names of the trustees of the scheme;
- the address to which communications for the attention of the trustees are to be directed if other than the address of the scheme;
- the name of the scheme administrator;
- whether the scheme is an open, closed or frozen scheme;
- the name (and, if there has been a change of name, the previous name) and address of every employer of earners in employment to which the scheme relates or has at any time since 6th April 1975 related;
- the number of members of the scheme;
- whether the scheme provides, money purchase benefits, benefits other than money purchase benefits, or a combination of benefits (benefits derived from transfer credits, or from a members voluntary contributions, or which are payable on a member's death are disregarded);
- where scheme benefits, or any of them, are secured by a contract of insurance or annuity contract issued by an insurance company which provides administration services to the scheme, the name and address of the insurance company;
- the date the scheme became registrable;
- any reference number assigned to the scheme by the Board of Inland Revenue.
The register currently contains details of over 217,000 occupational and personal pension schemes (each with a unique registration number), of which over 103,000 are "live" schemes. Any information about these schemes reflects the details recorded at the time. Trustees are legally required to notify the Registrar of any change in the information already provided and the date of any change, within 12 months of the occurrence of that change. As the levy is collected annually, we encourage trustees to report any changes at the same time. This means that at any given point in time scheme details could be up to 12 months out of date.
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This page last revised: Wednesday, 20 October 2004
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