WITH OPRA BESIEGED BY BUREAUCRACY, THERE ARE PROPOSALS FOR A NEW BODY TO TAKE A MORE PROACTIVE ROLE

The Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA) - the pensions industry's regulator - is set to be replaced by a 'super-regulator' under the forthcoming Pensions Act.

David Pollard, a partner with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, says: 'The proposal is for a super regulator - someone who can do far more, be more proactive and make more decisions.

'A House of Commons report says OPRA has taken too limited a view of its role, which I found intriguing since Parliament did not originally want it to have a very expansive role.

'OPRA was designed to be a checklist body: "Pay this amount by this time or we may fine you." The new regime will supposedly have a much wider remit, perhaps along the lines of the Financial Services Authority.'

He says a regulator has to perform a difficult balancing act.

'More regulation and protection equals more costs, which equals less money to provide pensions.

You don't want greater protection because that means less money for pensions, but it's pretty difficult to say to someone who has lost their pension like ASW employees that it's for the greater good.'

Katherine Dandy, of Sacker & Partners, says: 'It was introduced in 1997 and it has been accused of being too absorbed by the minutiae and not looking at the bigger picture.

But its action in the Maersk case showed it was prepared to get stuck in on a big name.' Ms Dandy says that when OPRA was introduced, nobody knew what its remit would be.

'It was like introducing a new police force without knowing how much crime is being reported.

OPRA was overwhelmed by lots of whistle-blowing on lots of relatively minor matters.'

She says it was overburdened by the legislation, and has now introduced a 'traffic light system' for the industry, with 'red' placing an obligation to report the situation to OPRA, 'amber' being discretionary as to whether to report, while 'green' matters should not be reported at all.

'With this new system, OPRA only gets involved in things that warrant its attention.

It will force the industry to police itself and deal with smaller matters itself,' says Ms Dandy.

'I think OPRA does a good job.

It needed this period of reflection to weed the big issues from the small.

We threw down the gauntlet with Maersk and they picked it up and ran with it.'

The report says a regulator should be more proactive but, Ms Dandy points out, the existing staff and office are likely to remain after the switch.