Charlie Massey, executive director at the UK's regulatory agency for pension funds, is to step down and return to the government's Department for Work and Pensions as his three-year secondment to the watchdog comes to an end.

Chris Dobson, currently a director at the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, a government agency charged with setting up a planned new state pension scheme for the UK from 2012, has been lined up to take over from him on a temporary basis.