Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) pensions

In early 2017, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and employers across the NDA estate consulted on reforms to two final salary schemes:

• Combined Nuclear Pension Plan (CNPP)
• Magnox Electric Group of the Electricity Supply Pension Scheme (MEG ESPS).

The purpose of the consultation was to seek the views of members on reforms including moving to a Career Averaged Revalued Earnings (CARE) arrangement and a cap on pensionable pay.

Members of these schemes are covered by protection arrangements put in place at privatisation, requiring the new private sector employers to continue to provide pension benefits for those employed at the time of privatisation which are “at least as good as those they were receiving in the public sector.”

However, the current Government has decided that – because the NDA is classified as public sector – the schemes fall to be reformed under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013. In response, the trade unions argue that i) they are not public sector pension schemes; ii) they have already gone through far more radical reform (in that they were closed to new entrants in the mid-2000s); and that scheme members are covered by statutory protection put in place at privatisation.