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

In this 7 Days

DWP confirms scope of fiduciary duty guidance

Torsten Bell, the Pensions Minister, confirmed in a written parliamentary answer on 22 January 2026 that the forthcoming guidance on fiduciary duties will support private pension trustees in considering wider factors within their existing legal obligations. The guidance will include clarification and practical support on their ability to take account of system level risks, such as climate related risks, and the impacts of investments where these affect members’ long-term outcomes, including their standard of living.

The guidance will also explore how trustees may consider members’ views, provided this remains consistent with investing in members’ best interests, and will reaffirm that trustees should take account of all financially material matters, where appropriate in their investment decision making.

Work is expected to commence shortly, beginning with an industry roundtable to ensure the guidance meets the identified need.

DWP to consult on strengthening the pensions transfer process

Torsten Bell, the Pensions Minister, confirmed in a written parliamentary answer on 26 January 2026 that the Government will publicly consult on its work to strengthen the transfer process with enhanced protections in the “coming months”. The DWP is working with partners, including the police, the National Economic Crime Centre and anti-scams industry groups, to identify and disrupt unlawful activity, making sure those targeting pension savers face appropriate enforcement action.

Following the June 2023 review of the Transfer Conditions Regulations 2021, the Government has been working with the pensions industry to consider changes “to provide a smoother transfer process and proactively respond to any developing risks”.

PASA guidance on administration through buy-in and superfund transactions

On 28 January 2026, PASA published practical guidance to support trustees, administrators and advisers navigating the operational realities of buy-in and superfund transactions. The guidance refutes that scheme administration “stops” once a buy-in is completed and highlights the important role administration plays before, during and after transition for ensuring smooth delivery, compliance and positive member outcomes. The guidance aims to facilitate earlier, better-informed conversations between all parties involved in a transaction, “reinforcing the importance of collaboration and realistic planning rather than reactive problem-solving”.

Ian Wort, Chair of PASA’s De-Risking Journey Management Working Group, said: “Buy-in and Superfund transactions are positive and increasingly common outcomes for schemes, but the operational impact is often underestimated. Administration doesn’t become simpler. it changes. This Guidance is about helping trustees, administrators and advisers understand what good looks like in practice and how early alignment, clear decision-making and strong data governance can make a material difference to outcomes.”

PDP consults on updated reporting standards

On 28 January 2026, the PDP published revised reporting standards (version 2.1) for consultation, alongside a blog explaining what’s changing and what it means for pension providers and schemes.

The reporting standards set out requirements on pension providers and schemes for generating and recording operational information and reporting it to MaPS. The current reporting standards, version 2.0, were approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in March 2025. They require that pension providers and schemes generate and retain records on data relating to coverage, service availability and view responses, to be made available to MaPS “on request”. This version made clear that the reporting standards would be updated in relation to how this data should be routinely reported to MaPS via application programming interfaces (“APIs”), a set of rules and protocols that enable different software applications to communicate with each other.

The revised reporting standards set out the technical requirements for submitting this data to MaPS. What will be changing is how the data is to be reported, with daily submission via APIs replacing ad-hoc reporting on request.

The consultation closes on 25 March 2026. The proposed implementation deadline is 30 November 2026.

Pension schemes newsletter 177

On 29 January 2026, HMRC published its latest pension schemes newsletter. It includes information on:

  • actions non-UK pension scheme administrators must take before 6 April 2026 to remain compliant (all administrators must be UK resident on and from this date)
  • HMRC’s user research around the design for a new digital service that allows pension scheme administrators and pension scheme practitioners to report the details of an IHT payment notice.

PPI publishes report on saving among low earners

On 28 January 2026, the Pensions Policy Institute published its third report in a series titled “From Payslip to Pension: Life Course Impacts on Retirement Saving Among Low Earners”.

This report explores what pension incomes, and retirement needs, different low earner profiles are projected to have under current policy.