CARE scheme

Supermarket giant Morrisons has seen its two defined benefit schemes swing from surplus into deficit after lower returns on assets, its final results show.

Schemes should design auto-enrolment procedures with a longer term focus than the staging date, Tesco corporate pension manager Karen Wake says.

Engineering giant GKN has split its UK defined benefit scheme into two in its latest annual move to curtail scheme deficits and reduce risk, its 2012 final results reveal.

Amec has closed its career average revalued earnings schemes to new members and offered cash lump sum settlements despite its principal scheme being in surplus, its full-year results show.

The Government has issued a call for evidence after the Public Service Pensions Bill passed its second reading in parliament this week.

The Public Service Pensions Bill will penalise members of the NHS scheme and "entrench disparities" within public sector schemes, the British Medical Association says.

Local authorities will have to overhaul administration systems before changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme in 2014, warns a provider.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published a consultation on proposed amendments to auto-enrolment legislation that will allow employers to use career average arrangements as qualifying schemes.

Cemlyn Foulkes looks at how much progress has been made since the publication of the Hutton Report and asks if individual steps have resulted in a reduction or increase in benefits.

Unions and local government employers will meet early next week to kick off three months' of intense talks designed to produce a new Local Government Pension Scheme.