On the go: The Pensions Regulator has updated its policies in relation to its board members’ declaration of interests, following criticisms that TPR did not publish potential conflicts arising from connected parties in its public register.
In a letter to Work and Pensions Committee chair Stephen Timms, published on Friday, Sarah Smart, who took over as permanent chair of TPR in May, said that recommendations were approved to change the board’s code of conduct and associated guidance for its register of interests.
In a pre-appointment hearing with the committee in April, Smart was questioned about potential conflicts of interest since her husband, Fraser Smart — now strategic adviser to the board of Aquila Heywood, was at the time chief executive of the British Airways Pension Scheme.
During the hearing, the committee MPs also raised the point that, at the time, TPR did not see fit to publish potential conflicts arising from “connected parties” in the public register, a point Smart said she had asked to be reviewed.
This process has now been completed, and at a meeting in May the board approved recommendations that the register should include information on interests of connected persons or organisations and it “should be published in its entirety, save where there are exceptional circumstances such as if there was a risk to a person’s safety”, Smart explained in the letter.
TPR’s board members are also now required to declare positions on pension scheme trustee boards, their subcommittees, or employment by such schemes, as well as consultancy work, alongside the previous requirement to declare other employment or directorships.
The regulator’s board also approved a minimum level for declarable shareholdings, which has been set at £1,000, Smart added.
