What’s been happening in November 2022?

In our regular monthly update, we share the latest news from our firm.

Andrew Nugent Smith was interviewed by BCL Legal’s The Brief

Managing Partner Andrew Nugent Smith recently spoke to The Brief, BCL Legal’s hub of industry knowledge, opinions, and interviews from top legal professionals. Andrew discussed our firm’s inception, its strategy, the market for class actions in the UK, and the role that collective redress plays in providing access to justice.

We launched a group action claim against Suffolk Police

Highly sensitive personal information involving victims of sexual assault has been exposed following a data privacy leak at Suffolk Police.

We have launched a group action to help those involved in the Suffolk Police data security failure claim compensation for any distress or harm experienced because of this breach.

We started a campaign to raise awareness of British Steel pension mis-selling compensation

In 2017, many workers were advised to swap their secure “final salary” British Steel pensions into SIPPS, QROPS, and other types of personal pensions. But while the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) provided a generous pay-out on retirement and kept pace with inflation, the new pensions often did not deliver comparable remunerations. This left many steelworkers significantly worse off on retirement.

In most cases, the affected steelworkers suffered losses of around £82,000, but for some workers, this rose to £489,000. Almost 8,000 people could be affected by this scandal, with around £2.8 billion transferred from British Steel’s pension scheme.

The financial advisors caught-up in this scandal often received commission or other fees for facilitating the pension transfers. Around 50% of the advice given to BSPS members was unsuitable. Better Retirement Group (BRG) is one of the companies found guilty of British Steel pension mis-selling.

We are currently looking into a group action case against Better Retirement Group and in November 2022 we launched a campaign to raise awareness of BSPS mis-selling.

If you were persuaded to transfer your British Steel pension to a private scheme – either by BRG or another advisor – you might have been mis-sold and we can help you to make a claim. 

We look forward to bringing you more news next month.

Connor Taylor