Scottish LGPS learns lessons from England

The Scottish version of the LGPS is set to come into force in April 2009. The new-look English and Welsh scheme came into force in April this year.

Strathclyde Pension Fund pensions manager Andy Knox said: "The implementation of the LGPS in England has had quite a few difficulties.

"The scheme to be implemented in Scotland is slightly different, but we think that by watching what happened in England and Wales we have learnt some lessons which should hopefully make things run more smoothly."

He added: "If the Scottish scheme had come in to force first we would probably have gone through all of the same difficulties that we have seen in England, but hopefully lessons have been learnt."

Knox said one example of this was changes they had made to contribution rates which made it easier to administer the scheme.

A spokeswoman for the Lothian Pension Fund agreed – noting that all the pension funds in Scotland were working to provide a consistent approach to the implementation of the new scheme to make it as painless as possible for the members.

She said: "As we are a year behind England and Wales this has allowed us to benefit from their experience. Along with other Scottish authorities and the regulator we are working to minimise implementation issues using some of the lessons learned when similar changes were introduced in England and Wales."