The PPF have made certain changes for the 2011/12 levy and all schemes and employers should take note of them and act as soon as possible before 31 March 2010:

• Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) will collect accounts from the Charity Commission. Employers filing accounts with the Charity Commission will now have them automatically picked up by D&B up until 30 March 2010. If you are in any doubt that D&B may not pick up your accounts from the Charity Commission website, we recommend you send them directly to D&B.
• A new attribute called ‘nationwide' will be introduced for businesses with three or more branches in different UK regions, which will mean they are assessed as a national rather than regional employer.
• If you think you may be affected by this change, you should contact D&B as soon as possible to ensure they hold the correct information on your branch locations. This attribute cannot be appealed after 31 March 2010.

A new probability of insolvency table for 2011/12 has also been published. This will affect all schemes' levies. We recommend speaking to D&B as soon as possible to see if there's any information you can provide that will affect your score.

Other changes to be aware of:

• PPF-compliant contingent assets will be excluded by D&B in their scores. This means that the PPF will inform D&B about which employers have pledged contingent assets.
• When measuring the failure score of a subsidiary whose ultimate parent company is at substantial risk of going bust, the score of the subsidiary will be that of the parent. A parent at severe risk is one with a failure score between 1 and 10. We recommend you ensure D&B have the correct information on your group structure.

Employers that seek changes to their industry sector or geographical region will need to provide evidence to support that change. If you think you have been assigned to the wrong sector or employer, contact D&B to find out the evidence required.