Governance - Business continuity plans

Trustees should ensure that plans are in place should anything happen that could have a significant impact on the running of their pension scheme. They should discuss their business continuity arrangements and record their plans. As part of that exercise trustees should speak to their advisers to ensure they are happy with the plans the advisers have in place should something go wrong.

The Regulator has said that for DC arrangements business continuity plans “should cover disaster recovery, to ensure that where there is physical damage to the property or premises of their administration provider:

• data will continue to be available and accurate at all times
• core scheme financial transactions can continue to be processed accurately and promptly at all times
• computer hardware and software will be maintained
• records are secure and retrievable
• data will be regularly backed up and tested”

These are sensible principles to apply to DB arrangements too.