The two Pension Schemes of interest, the 1992 Scheme, and the 2006 Scheme are currently administered, that is controlled and supervised, by 4 authorities, namely the DCLG for the 46 Fire & Rescue Services(FRS) Authorities of England, and the 3 devolved authorities namely Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland each operating under their own devolved Assemblies(local parliaments).

The DCLG and the Assemblies of Scotland, Wales ,and Northern Ireland are the Scheme Managers or Trustees of the local FRS authorities under their direct control and jurisdiction.

A Trustee is someone, e.g., the DCLG who holds property (taxpayers money) in trust for others, the beneficiaries (pensioners); to whom they owe legal duties; with legal authority over all these 46 Schemes which their local FRS managers also hold in trust by delegation from the DCLG. The DCLG also controls the implementation of the law; its amendment and drafting in trust; and finally the DCLG is in a position of absolute trust to all Scheme Members; their widows; and beneficiaries.

The DCLG delights in informing the plebs that they are not 'Trustees' but of course they are and are just hair splitting.

In the case of England the DCLG controls the entire enterprise top to bottom.Whilst the DCLG denies that it is a Trusteeship per se, it is nevertheless in a position of trust and with the advent of the Lord Hutton of Furness Report in 2011 and its implementation in law 2013 the argument corncerning trusteeship is history because without doubt the DCLG are now responsible by the enactment of this new law in an inescapable legal 'chain of authority' top to bottom.

Whilst these 4 overarching authorities may delegate some of their powers to local FRS this does not break the chain of causality or liability, in other words these governmental authorities remain in charge and accountable in law more so than ever.

Funding and budgeting is an entirely different structure and ought not to be confused with trusteeship, new reinforced lawful chains of authority, and administration.

For England the 46 Pension Schemes are administered by the DCLG in London through a specific department-the Firefighters' Pension Team-which is staffed by a Team of 4 government Civil Servants who advise and control the running of these Schemes for the government of the day on a daily basis. This title and duties will and have changed post Hutton not that you would know it in correspondence with the DCLG civil servants.

This Team can call on the internal services of other government departments for technical support e.g., the Government Actuary’s Department-GAD provides actuarial analysis(government financial predictions which we know are hardly ever right) to the public sector; and for legal advice, the Treasury Solicitors.

The Team Leader, a senior Civil Servant, accounts to his Head of Division; in turn to the Permanent Secretary of the DCLG; and ultimately his political ‘boss’ the Secretary of State currently Rt Hon Mark Francois M.P. colloquially known as the ‘Fire Minister’.

This Team Leader also chairs the Firefighters Pension  Committee, a talking shop, which meets quarterly and consists of 21 ‘fire industry’ stakeholders including as you might expect Firefighter representative bodies who are all, in theory, meant to collectively oversee the correct daily implementation of the Scheme rules and one assumes the overall efficiency and accountability of the 49 Schemes under their jurisdiction.

But this lethargy has changed rather dramatically when they are now called on to work for a living shortly by Hutton and now the new Pensions Minister Baroness Altmann CBE and her team of Pensions Regulator and Pensions Ombudsman.

Firefighters Pension Committee current status Go here.