Slaughter and May advised Royal Mail on the UK’s first collective defined contribution (CDC) plan, the Royal Mail Collective Pension Plan, which launched on 7 October.
The innovative scheme was the outcome of over 6 years of hard work and collaboration between the Royal Mail team, led by Angela Gough (Head of Corporate Pensions) and Richard Poole (Legal Director: Pensions & Employee Benefits), the Communication Workers Union and Unite CMA, the Plan Trustee and their respective advisers to provide a scheme offering an income in retirement for over 100,000 Royal Mail employees.
New legislation was needed to ensure that by providing a pension from its own resources the Plan was not classed as a defined benefit scheme. We therefore worked closely with the DWP, HMRC and the Pensions Regulator to design the UK legislative regime for CDC schemes.
Partner Chris Sharpe said “I feel very privileged to have worked on the project. It was a real pleasure to work with the exceptional Royal Mail team, and collaborate closely with colleagues at DWP, HMRC, TPR and with the Trustee and its advisers. I know lawyers like to talk about projects being innovative and cutting edge, but this is the real deal – the first scheme of its kind in the UK. It was very exciting to have a hand in shaping the legislation and also think from first principles about what the Plan needed to cater for”.