Scottish Office Pensions Agency: Annual Report and Accounts

FOREWORD by the CHIEF EXECUTIVE

This is my second Annual Report since taking up post in March 1998. It has been another busy and difficult year for the Agency and its staff who have again had to provide an effective service to our customers without the support of a fully operational IT system. Despite this constraint, I am pleased to report that core services have been maintained and we have managed to make some progress to develop an organisation that is even more clearly focused on service delivery. I am grateful to all our staff for their efforts.

Some of the highlights from the year are:

• Changes were made to scheme regulations to reflect significantlegislative initiatives on pension issues.
• Over 99% of awards and transfer payments were accurate.
• Over 10,000 phase I mis-selling cases processed.
• The review of the NHS Scheme AVC facility was completed.
• Pension arrangements were made for the Members of theScottish Parliament.
• Worked with the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and others to develop a vocational qualification in pensions administration.

I am pleased to report that good progress is now being made to overcome the problems that have delayed the development of our new pensions administration computer system. During the rest of this year we plan to complete the input of the backlog of data for the NHS scheme and this process will be enhanced, as will the other key functions of the system, by the installation of a new processor.

We have also made progress with the review of the Agency's organisational structure to take advantage of the new computer system. A project manager was appointed during the year and he has made good progress on the initial diagnosis phase of the project. Staff involvement is the key to the success of any project like this, so the project manager has ensured that opportunities for consultation with individual members of staff and the Trade Union Side have been included in the project time-table. We hope to begin the implementation phase of the project during 1999.

We are also committed to the development of staff and have worked closely with the Scottish Office to retain Investors in People status. An important initiative in this area is the work we have done with the PMI and other public sector pensions administrators to develop a vocational qualification in public sector pensions administration. The introduction of this qualification will be a key factor in the re-structured SOPA.

1999-2000 will be a further challenging year for the Agency and its staff. We are aiming to complete all significant elements of the new computer system and to catch up on the backlog of computer input. Additionally, with policy on state pensions in general becoming clear, a substantial amount of work will be needed to adapt our schemes to the new environment. The establishment of the "Stakeholder Pension" will mean the Agency comes under greater scrutiny from its members and we look forward to the challenge that will bring.

The coming of the Scottish Parliament will also bring important changes and extra work. New schemes will be created for the Police and Fire Services in Scotland; one has already been established for MSP's. There will certainly be more and better scrutiny from The Scottish Parliament of these and the other regulations we prepare.

Nonetheless, I am confident that we will be able to build on the skills, knowledge and commitment which has already been demonstrated by our staff and therefore improve the services we provide.