The Pension Regulator (TPR) has confirmed that the UK Funding Code will come into effect from 22 September.
At the end of January, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published the final funding and investment regulations which are set to come into force from April 2024.
The regulation sets out legislative detail of a new scheme funding regime designed to protect scheme members for the long term and has been branded as a “starting gun” for new defined benefit (DB) Funding Code.
Speaking at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s (PLSA) investment conference in Edinburgh this week, Louise Davey, interim director of regulatory policy, analysis and advice at TPR, confirmed that the new DB Funding Code will come into force on 22 September.
She said: “It is slightly complicated because the regulations come into force on 6 April, but actually won’t take effect until 22 September so schemes that have valuation dates on or after 22 September will be the first ones to be caught by the Funding Code”.
She noted that the code will be published in the summer so it can be laid in parliament before coming into effect. Before that happens, she said the regulator will consult on its statement of strategy “in the next few weeks”.
The statement of strategy will set out the detail around the data and information that the regulator will expect to be provided as part of the new funding regime, she explained.
Around the same time, Davey said the regulator will publish the code and fast track parameters, as well as updated impact assessment.
She continued: “And then later in the summer we will consult on the covenant governance that will support that, so there is a whole suite of things coming up over the year, but all intended to come in force ready for that 22 September.”
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