7 Days is a weekly round up of developments in pensions, normally published on Monday afternoons. We collate this information from key industry sources, such as the DWP, HMRC and TPR.

In this 7 Days

Pensions Minister intends to introduce Pensions Bill before summer recess

Torsten Bell, the Pensions Minister, spoke on 11 March 2025 at the annual PLSA Investment Conference, confirming that the Government intends to introduce a Pensions Bill before Parliament’s summer recess.

The basis of the Pensions Bill will be the Government’s final report on its Pensions Investment Review, which is expected to be “finalised in the coming weeks”, and “the wider changes promised in the Kings Speech”. In particular, Bell referenced the commitment to implement legislation for a permanent regime for DB superfunds. He also commented that surplus flexibilities could allow for better-funded DB schemes to “release resources back to business and scheme members”. More detail on surplus will be set out in the Government’s response to the Options for DB schemes consultation, which is expected this spring.

Following on from the PPF final levy rules, Bell confirmed that proposals are being considered to allow the PPF greater flexibility to reduce the levy on pension schemes, when it is no longer required.

TPR publishes regulatory intervention report

On 11 March 2025, TPR published a regulatory intervention report in relation to the MGN Pension Scheme after a failure to agree the 2019 triennial valuation.

TPR was informed at the expiry of the 15-month deadline for agreeing the 2019 triennial valuation that agreement between the parties was “extremely unlikely”. Following intervention by TPR, the parties reached agreement on the 2019 valuation and the subsequent 2022 valuation (as agreement was not reached before the effective date for this). Deficit recovery contributions of £46 million per year were agreed (an increase of £5 million per year compared to the previous recovery plan).

TPR was “pleased” that the employer and trustee were able to agree their valuations without the need for TPR to formally use its powers. It encourages all schemes to be “open and transparent” and engage with TPR early, allowing it to be clear on its expectations. Trustees and employers can then “work together” to resolve issues.

Secretary of State approves PDP’s dashboards standards

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions approved PDP’s technical standards, data standards, reporting standards and code of connection requirements on 13 March 2025. The PDP has authority to set “standards”, which provide the rules and controls to facilitate the ongoing connection to the dashboards ecosystem. There is a changelog reporting what has changed since the previous version of each of the standards.

This is welcome timing, with schemes expected to connect to the dashboards ecosystem in line with the DWP connection guidance, starting with the largest schemes that have a “connect by” date of 30 April 2025.

PLSA updates its Vote Reporting Template

On 12 March 2025, following work by the FCA-convened Vote Reporting Group, the PLSA updated its Vote Reporting Template for asset managers.

The new template is designed to collect standardised voting information after recognition by the industry that asset managers were being asked to report information required by trustees in different manners and in turn, trustees were unable to get consistent, standardised information from managers. This new template is designed to address this concern by improving vote reporting quality and consistency, reducing reporting costs for asset managers, increasing transparency and comparability for trustees and enhancing engagement and market discipline.

The PLSA has also produced an FAQs document which is intended to “provide clarity” on the purpose of the new PLSA template.