Railways Pension Trustee Co Ltd (claimant/respondent) v ATOS IT Services UK Ltd & anr (defendants/appellants)
Tuesday 12 – Thursday 14 December 2023
By Appellant’s Notice filed on 7 February 2023, the Appellant appeals the Order dated 16 December 2022 of Sir Julian Flaux, Chancellor of the High Court, sitting in the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts, Pensions List in which he gave answers sought by the Respondent, to a number of questions arising in the administration of the Railways Pension Scheme (“the RPS”)
Background – The Respondent is the Trustee of the RPS, and on 21 April 2022 filed a Part 8 Claim seeking directions of the Court on a number of questions arising from the administration of the RPS, an industry-wide defined benefit occupational pension scheme.
The RPS was established to hold the pensions of rail workers on privatisation and comprised 106 ringfenced Sections each with a Participating Employer. The Applicants were the Participating Employers for the Atos Section of the RPS. Each Section is governed by the pension trust deed (the “Pension Trust”) and by the Rules of the individual Section.
The Pension Trust and the Rules of each Section are required to operate in such a way as to comply with the Railway Pensions (Protection and Designation of Schemes) Order (the “Protection Order”).
There is a potential shortfall in funding to the Atos Section of the RPS.
The Court was asked to determine 7 questions related to the interpretation and operation of Rule 21 of the Atos Scheme Rules and the provisions of the Protection Order in circumstances where there is a shortfall in funding of the Section. The answers to these questions were required to enable the Actuary to complete valuations of the Atos Section.
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Day 1
Day 2
Day 3