Here is our weekly summary of key legal and regulatory developments relevant to occupational pension schemes that you might have missed, with links for further information.
- The chancellor’s Mansion House speech on 15 July 2025 did not contain any pensions surprises. She referenced the creation of defined contribution (DC) and Local Government Pension Scheme mega funds, the recent Mansion House Accord, and a new employer pledge to prioritise value before cost when selecting or reviewing DC pension providers. The chancellor did say that the Pension Schemes Bill will be “signed into law in the next few months”, but this seems unlikely given that the bill is still in the early stages of being considered by Parliament and is not scheduled to start its line-by-line examination by the public bill committee until 2 September. Several documents were published to supplement the speech, including the government’s outcome of its call for evidence on a financial services growth and competitiveness strategy. The outcome notes that various sustainability initiatives, along with measures to encourage the public to invest in UK equities, will be progressed. Meanwhile, one proposal that is not being taken forward is the UK green taxonomy, which had been proposed as a means of mitigating against greenwashing. There was no mention of the forthcoming pensions adequacy review in the chancellor’s speech, although it is possible (but perhaps unlikely now) that it will appear as an additional paper soon.
- As mentioned in a previous update, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is running a consultation on addressing the “advice gap”. Some of the questions in the consultation are addressed to occupational pension trustees, to assess their views on providing more support to members, how this could be delivered and barriers to delivery. The consultation runs until 29 August 2025. Connected with this, the government has issued a policy document and draft legislation on the provision of “targeted support”, as part of its Mansion House package. Firms regulated by the FCA or Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will be able to provide support to groups of customers, based on their characteristics. Firms will need special authorisation to provide targeted support.
- The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has updated its dashboards Data Matching Convention (DMC) Guidance. This is described as an “evolving document”, which will be further informed by industry experience, consumer testing and live dashboards usage. The latest update includes refinements following last year’s confirmation that the government’s One Login service will be used for identity verification, which impacts the verified data in a “find request.” Other updates focus on the use of unique identifiers (such as email addresses), acceptable levels of certainty for a “match made” and the need to make sure that possible matches are well targeted, to avoid the system being flooded with false responses “which would be bad for saver experience and administrator workload”.
- The Pensions Dashboards programme has reported that over 20 million pension records are now connected to the dashboards ecosystem and the state pension has also completed its technical connection. Separately, plans for consumer testing of the MoneyHelper dashboard have been published. Testing will begin with pensions industry experts before involving the general public.
- The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has published its annual report and accounts for 2024-2025. It notes a fall in both asset values and liabilities, but also that there has been a £1.1 billion increase overall in reserves to £14.1 billion. The report and accounts confirm that the PPF has completed implementation of the Hampshire uplifts (which ensure that members’ PPF compensation is at least 50% of the value of their accrued scheme benefits) and the removal of the PPF compensation cap for all eligible members. The current levy estimate of £45 million for 2025-2026 is under review in light of legislation contained in the Pension Schemes Bill.
- Our labour and employment colleagues have updated their publication on the Employment Rights Bill to reflect the latest developments.
If you would like specific advice on any of these issues or anything else, please contact a member of our Pensions team.