To ensure pension schemes are legally compliant, the Regulator has powers to take regulatory and enforcement action such as recovering late or missing payments from an employer on behalf of a scheme, issuing fines for breaches of the law, and prosecuting certain offences in the criminal courts.
The Regulator’s current non-executive chair is Mark Boyle and its chief executive is Lesley Titcomb.
The USS pension scheme’s governing body is the trustee board. The board has between 10 and 12 members: four are appointed by UUK, three by UCU and the rest are independent directors appointed by the board. It meets on average five times a year.
Trustees of pension schemes like USS have to act in line with the rules of their scheme and with pensions legislation. Their responsibilities include:
- ensuring that USS is adequately funded
- ensuring that USS acts in line with the rules of the scheme and complies with pensions legislation and regulation
- ensuring that USS’s investment strategy is appropriate for the scheme’s liabilities
- ensuring that USS is managed, administered and invested at a level with which members and employers are content.
The USS trustees are required to present a scheme for the pension which is to the satisfaction of the Pensions Regulator.
