The last episode of Season Three of the Burges Salmon Pensions Pod went live just before Easter. It was our 18th bite-sized and chatty podcast looking at key topics for trustees and employers in the pensions industry.

In case you missed any episodes when they were aired, here is a recap of our final three episodes of the season.

Episode 4 - A round-up of recent pension news stories

• We invited our trainee solicitors (Shannon Willett, Lydia Morris, Emily Fox, Katy Dixon and Scarlett Sullivan) to share their pick of the latest pensions news bites (from early March 2023 – when this episode was aired).
• Shannon looked at the LDI crisis and what trustees should be doing, Lydia took the DWP’s deferred small pots consolidation, Emily commented on the memorandum of understanding between the DWP and TPR in relation to criminal offences (very relevant to any employers of DB pension schemes considering business activity), Katy gave the latest on a key case affecting SIPs (and duties of pension providers) and to end the episode, Scarlett considered the proposed value for money framework, which has the aim of shifting the focus of the DC pensions market away from cost and onto value.

Episode 5 - It's been five years since GDPR - what do you need to know?

• Our data protection team joined us to discuss the post-Brexit regime and what is coming next for data protection and pensions.
• A key topic of discussion was the new reforms which are coming under the reintroduced Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.
• We discussed what the UK’s stand-alone data protection regime means for trustees and to what extent policies will need to be updated.
• We also covered international data transfers, particularly as organisations should not transfer personal data outside the UK unless appropriate safeguards are in place.
• Finally, there’s a word on cyber security… which is a key topic of the forthcoming Single (now “General”) Code.

Episode 6 – What does the Spring Budget mean for pensions trustees and employers?

• In our sixth and final episode, we were joined by Catrin Young, who set out the changes brought about by the Budget and what this means for savers, trustees and employers.
• Trainee Emily Fox joined our regular hosts to ask Catrin about the abolition of the lifetime allowance and what further developments there might be.
• Catrin also delved into some of the more obscure changes announced in the Budget including to the tapered annual allowance and the midlife MOT.

For now, that’s a wrap on Season Three but you will hear from us again in the autumn for our fourth season. You can listen to all of our episodes here.

Helen and I would welcome all feedback and if you are interested in us covering a topic (or even being the special guest on a future episode!) please get in touch with either of us.

This blog was written by Emily Fox (trainee solicitor), Helen Cracknell (Associate) and Chris Brown (Director) – all in the pensions team at Burges Salmon.