UK - British Airways will present plans for a restructure of its defined benefit schemes to The Pensions Regulator next month after it concluded talks with trade unions over its £3.7bn (US$5.3bn) deficit.

United Utilities slashed £88m from its IAS19 deficit in just six months after adopting a "sustainable approach" to its pension scheme.

Whitbread will use company assets to back a £100m contribution into its pension fund.

ING Real Estate Investment Management has raised more than £50m for its Lionbrook Property Fund.

Details of the independent commission charged with reviewing the sustainability of public sector pensions could be revealed as early as Friday, a senior civil servant says.

Private pension scheme membership has slumped by almost one and a half million since 1997, the Office for National Statistics says.

At the beginning of March, Professional Pensions interviewed the then Liberal Democrat pensions spokesman Steve Webb about his party's key pensions policies in the build up to the general election.

Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb has been appointed as pensions minister.

Supermarket chain J Sainsbury will tackle almost half of its £1.2bn pension deficit with a £750m property partnership deal.

Chris Grayling is rumoured to be named as the new pensions minister under the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government.