When the Bank of England announced its plans for quantitative easing last month, it had one unintended consequence – alongside the desired boost to the credit markets, the damping effect of QE on market interest rates forced companies to take a fresh look at corporate pension liabilities, which have been long concealed in a thicket of conflicting rules and standards.

In recent weeks, research analysts who follow companies as diverse as Marks and Spencer, Smiths, the engineering group, and broadcaster ITV have issued lengthy reports looking closely at retirement obligations in far more detail.