On the go: The trustees of the BT, Ford and Marks and Spencer schemes have decided not to seek a review of a September High Court judgment in the Court of Appeal, after the High Court struck down their judicial review against the government’s plans to axe the retail price index and refused a permission to appeal.
Industry commentators have warned that millions of pensioners would be affectedby the government’s plan to replace the RPI with the housing cost-based version of the consumer price index.
Trustees of the three pension schemes — representing almost 450,000 members and £83bn of assets — filed for judicial review against the government’s plans, and permission to proceed was granted in December last year.
In September, Justice Holgate found against the schemes’ trustees on each of the three grounds that they had presented to the High Court.
The trustees had argued that the UK Statistics Authority’s RPI decision sat outside its power to amend the index.
They also claimed that it failed to account for the impact its decision would have on RPI-linked gilts, bonds and index-linked pensions, therefore failing its duties under the Equality Act 2010 — and, in addition, that the government had failed to account for this in deciding not to award compensation.
The BT, Ford and Marks and Spencer schemes were said to be considering an appeal against the review.
However, on September 26, an update to HM Treasury’s website noted that “permission to appeal the judgment was refused by the High Court and no permission to appeal was sought from the Court of Appeal”.
“Accordingly, this judgment is now final,” it stated.
In a statement, the trustees of the scheme said that “after careful consideration, the trustees of the BT Pension Scheme, Ford Pension Schemes and Marks and Spencer Pension Scheme have taken the decision not to pursue an application to the Court of Appeal”.
