Six firms have been appointed to the Pension Protection Fund's (PPF) newly created Assessment Period Legal Panel (APLP).

Burgess Salmon, Clyde & Co, DWF, Eversheds, Norton Rose Fulbright and Osborne Clarke have been selected to be part of the new panel to focus on three PPF assessment tasks: admission rule, equalisation and the benefit specification.

This panel is the last in a series of five panels launched by the PPF to aid and support the transition of schemes into the PPF and through the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) wind-up.

The role of the six firms in this newly-formed panel will be to work collaboratively with key stakeholders to progress schemes through the PPF assessment or FAS wind-up periods in a timely manner.

David Heslop, chief operating officer, said: "This new panel is the final part in a series of panels we have successfully implemented over the past three years to reduce the time schemes spend in assessment.

"Since the introduction of the first panel, the PPF has consistently seen a reduction in the time that schemes spend in the assessment period – from an average of more than three years to the vast majority now completing the assessment period within two years.

"We are confident that this new panel will enhance and support the way we currently work, and, in turn, will help us to improve our ability to deliver certainty to our members much sooner while providing good value for money to our levy payers."

The APLP will initially run for a two-year period and is separate to the legal panel, which was launched last October.

First published 01.04.2014

monique_simpson@wilmington.co.uk