We originally lacked the required data to produce statements. We put considerable effort into rebuilding scheme records and began issuing provisional statements on request in early 2016.

We undertook considerable work in 2017 to create reasonably reliable statements, and to continue to make small changes to the data. We are aware however that not all address information we inherited is correct.

If you have not received a statement recently, please email info@greentrustees.com providing your up to date email and other contact details.

In most cases, this is unlikely to be a practical possibility at the moment.

This is because the bulk of members have invested their pension pots in corporate bonds that are yet to mature. The size of the schemes' holdings makes it difficult for us to realise these into cash, or indeed to force the situation with the issuer.

There is an additional issue in that most members have had some or all of their interest payments invested by the former trustee, Mr Mark Harris, into 7-year arrangements via Green Asset Solutions (who specialise in providing energy saving assets for local government).

Unfortunately, one group of members invested their pension pots via GFI Consultants Ltd, which has proven to be fraudulent. This complicates matters.

Members have a statutory right to take what is termed a "cash equivalent transfer value". This however is only the realisable value of your benefits. In other words, it doesn't allow you to take as cash those investments that we cannot turn into cash currently, or indeed those investments whose value has been lost (i.e. GFI).

The exceptions are most members of the Fixed Income 2012 Scheme. These were generally invested in Bonds that have already matured. There are still questions to resolve concerning scheme administration. We have however been able to return the bulk of monies for individual members as a 'partial transfer value' on request.

Practically, no.

In order to access benefits in any form, members really need to transfer out to another scheme first. In part this is because we simply do not have the administration systems in place to administer benefit payments reliably: our role is to wind-up the schemes and return what money we can realise to everyone, not to run the schemes like regular pension products. In the context of the 'pension freedoms' introduced from April 2015, the scheme rules have not been amended to facilitate lump sum payments of this type.

This means that in most cases, taking benefits will not be possible currently given that members' pension pots tend to be invested in assets that are not currently realisable, and will not be realisable until we have made further progress on winding up the Schemes.

This will vary by scheme.

For members of the Fixed Income 2012 Scheme, we are making progress with the wind-up of the scheme and are generally able to return the bulk of a member's money as a 'partial transfer value' before we complete the exercise later this year.

For members of the Green Schemes investing in corporate bonds, these Schemes are also now in windup. Progress however is stalling currently given that the Bonds have not yet been redeemed, despite being due to mature on 30 November 2017. We hope to be in a position to pay transfer values over 2019 once we have started to receive the Bond proceeds. Once we reach this point, we will also need to resolve matters around the small amounts invested by former trustee Mr Harris in illiquid investments via Green Asset Solutions. That however should not prevent us commencing a programme of return the bulk of monies via transfer values if a partial transfer value process appears necessary.

For members of the Green Schemes investing their pension pots via GFI Consultants Ltd, repayment is likely to be more problematic. Those parts of your pension pot invested supposedly in the Para Sky Plnatation are lost to GFI's fraud. We wrote to all such members several times throughout 2017: Our view is that it is imperative that these members pursue claims against their former financial advisers via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme ('FSCS'). See below.

Green Pension Trustees Ltd were not involved in the establishment of these schemes or in the investment decisions that members and/or the previous trustee took.

Instead, we took over as trustees and administrators of the schemes from 04 January 2016.

Our role is to complete the gathering-in of scheme records and assets, ensure proper accounts can be drawn up and with them accurate statements for individual members, and ultimately to ensure that the schemes are wound-up with monies paid as transfer values for individual members.

Importantly, please note that we do not run any form of 'customer call centre'. Consequently, most of our communcation will be in the form of issuing updates and periodic statements etc. Over the course of 2018 however, we put more resources into answering written and emailed queries as we found these tended to be of a more particular and technical nature. This is especially so where the queries come from lawyers, new IFAs, citizens advice et al.

GFI Consultants Ltd offered members investments in the form of individual plots in the Para Sky Plantation in Brazil. Unfortunately, it appears that GFI Consultants Ltd and its associated companies did not in fact hold title to those plots.

This 'investment' was undoubtedly fraudulent in nature, as was the similar Belem Sky Plantation 'investment'. An Insolvency Service investigation found that of £24m received by GFI Consultants Ltd, £13m was paid over to the GFI Directors' own personal bank accounts; alomost £9m was then spent paying off creditors of another unrelated but failed investment scheme of theirs.

The net result is that members' monies are lost to fraud.

Our advice to all members affected by this is to make a claim against the financial adviser who advised you to transfer your pension pot via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme ('FSCS').

A good starting point is your indpendent financial adviser, if you have one.

Other sources include trade union officials, the larger Unions having the skill set in-house.

Otherwise, the best port of call is likely to be your local Citizens Advice Bureau. Your local CAB is part of a national network, meaning even if they do not have someone available at your own branch, they should be able to let you speak to somebody based at another branch or in their wider network. You can find details of how to contact Citizens Advice via their website: www.citizensadvice.org.uk.

Yes.

It appears to us that all members received advice from an FCA authorised & regulated firm of Independent Financial Advisers ("IFA"). Most members received advice from Total Wealth Solutions Ltd. A smaller number received advice from Designed 4 Life Ltd or the Kynaston-Carnoustie Financial Consultancy Ltd. In our view, any advice to transfer your old pension pot to these Schemes was bad advice.

All of these IFA firms are now in liquidation or have been dissolved. This means that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme ("FSCS") will meet the "civil liabilities" of these firms in respect of "designated investment business".

You can start a claim directly with the FSCS online: [Click Here].

In our view, we have now done sufficient work (together with our nominated Claims Lawyer Alasdair Sampson) for FSCS to understand the nature of these claims. FSCS can be referred to the detailed 23-page memo we provided them with on 30 November 2017, together with some 3,000 pages of supporting evidence: [Click Here]. You should not now need to pay any 'Claims Manager' for assistance.

If however, you do feel you need such a service, we recommend using Mr Alasdair Sampson on the basis of his being an actual solicitor and the much lower fees he is able to offer (15% + VAT = 18% of any redress received). This compares to the circa 30% charged by most Claims companies. You can find more details of Mr Sampson, who we recommended originally to GFI-investing members, by [Clicking Here].