Pensions Weekly Update – 18 March 2025

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.

• A transcript of pensions minister Torsten Bell’s speech at the recent Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) conference has been published. The pensions minister spoke about some of the government’s current pensions priorities, including consolidation (“We want fewer, bigger, better pension schemes”), productive investment and plans for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). He aims to introduce the pension schemes bill before the summer parliamentary recess, which is currently scheduled for 22 July 2025.
• The chancellor has published an action plan to ensure regulators and regulation support growth. The vision is to support the growth of the UK economy and ensure that regulation is targeted, proportionate, transparent, predictable and adapts to keep pace with innovation. Pledges/actions for The Pensions Regulator (TPR) include (1) a review of the amount of capital reserve that master trusts are required to hold, with a view to freeing up millions of pounds for schemes by the end of 2025/2026; (2) development of an innovation framework and criteria to trial pensions innovation ideas, and the launch of a hub to test a variety of innovation services with the market by the autumn of 2025; (3) a reduction in unnecessary regulatory burden, including reducing data required in the scheme return; and (4) encouraging consolidation and investment in productive assets, including the voluntary disclosure of asset allocation data to shine a light on the relationship between asset allocation and net performance.
• Directors and persons with significant control of UK registered companies will be required to verify their identity from autumn 2025 onwards. This will also impact directors of corporate trustees. For directors of existing companies, the identity verification process will be done via the annual confirmation statement. We noted in our recent blog series that trustee directors might want to undertake the process early, by way of voluntary identification. Companies House has now updated its timeline with the voluntary process becoming available from 8 April 2025 (previously 25 March 2025).
• The PLSA has updated its vote reporting template for asset managers. It builds on the previous work of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Vote Reporting Group, and of the PLSA. Going forward, the template will be hosted on the PLSA’s website.
• The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has written a letter to the administering authorities of the LGPS in England and Wales, to clarify that regulation 64A of the LGPS Regulations 2013 was not intended to allow administering authorities to modify contribution rates for scheme employers as a way to manage pension fund surpluses or deficits outside of the triennial valuation cycle. The letter concludes that, “As it is clear that the intended and actual usage of 64A are not aligned, the government intends to consult on changes to the regulations as they apply to revision of contribution rates (including on the role of the fund actuary)”.
• Chris Curry of the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) will give an update on recent dashboards milestones in a webinar to be held on Thursday 3 April 2025 at 3 p.m. A representative from TPR will provide an update on obtaining and using registration codes for dashboards connection.
• This month marks five years since we started to produce our weekly pensions newsletter, which prompted us to think about some other pensions “anniversaries”. In April, we will mark 20 years since the Pension Protection Fund was established, and 10 years since the freedom and choice reforms came into force. And who would believe that on 17 May, it will be 35 years since the “Barber” equalisation judgment was handed down?

If you would like specific advice on any of these issues or anything else, please contact a member of our Pensions team.