Nearly half (40 per cent) of pension schemes have looked at The Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) new General Code ‘briefly, but are yet to engage with it, with many daunted at the prospect of a first ‘own risk assessment’ (ORA), a poll from LCP has found.

The poll, conducted during a recent LCP webinar, found that 40 per cent of respondents hadn’t fully got to grips with the requirements, while 7 per cent had not yet thought about it.

However, 46 per cent said they had already completed a gap analysis to see where work needs to be done, with 5 per cent confident they already complied.

In particular, LCP found that the new ORA, a report reviewing the scheme’s risks, was the biggest concern amongst trustees, as one in five attendees said that completion of the first ORA analysis was the most important issue and a similar amount said that it was cyber resilience.

In addition to this, just 2 per cent of respondents said that their first ORA had either been completed or was in progress.

Although TPR previously acknowledged that the ORA would be ‘a significant piece of work’ for trustees, its final consultation response clarified that it expects that it should be ‘a more straightforward project for any well-run scheme.’

In particular, TPR's final code confirmed that trustees don’t need to look at every single part of the effective system of governance (ESOG) in detail in each ORA, meaning that there are more options for schemes to think about what’s going to add most value to their scheme.

Timescales were also relaxed for the completion of the first ORA.

In light of the findings, LCP partner, Rachika Cooray, emphasised the need for pension schemes trustees to identify where their schemes might be exposed, and come up with a plan to address any areas for improvement.

“The right steps for schemes in the next few weeks will depend on where they are now with many trustees needing some new training on the code," Cooray continued.

“The publication of the code is a good opportunity to dust of a governance review and make sure that you are complying with all the areas included in the code.”

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