Andrew Simmonds QC successful in pensions appeal to the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has delivered judgment on Barnardo’s v Buckinghamshire and others [2018] UKSC 55,  an appeal by the sponsor of an occupational pension scheme on the question whether the trustees have power to switch the index by reference to which pensions are uprated from the RPI to the CPI (which would reduce the level of the sponsor’s funding obligations). The Court held that, in context, the trustees’ power to switch to a “replacement” index was not engaged when the RPI remained an officially published index. The Court gave guidance as to how the modern principles of interpretation of documents should be applied to pension scheme rules. Andrew Simmonds QC acted for the successful scheme members.

Link to Judgment can be found here.