Exactly a week after the Government unveiled its pensions plans in three major papers, the Pension Schemes Bill began its Parliamentary journey on 5 June 2025. Described by the Chancellor as a “game changer”, the Bill sets out a wide-ranging suite of measures, including:
- “to support employers’ investment plans and to benefit scheme members”, powers for DB trustees to amend scheme rules to allow greater flexibility over the safe release of any surplus, “worth collectively £160 billion”
- the new legislative framework for commercial DB superfunds
- how the Government intends to achieve the necessary scale for DC “Megafund” default arrangements by 2030 and its plans for requiring investment in UK private markets
- mirroring the FCA’s proposals for contract-based arrangements announced last summer, the new value for money (VFM) framework for trust-based schemes
- new duties to be placed on DC trustees to offer a retirement income solution or range of solutions, and
- proposals for automatically consolidating small DC pots worth £1,000 or less.
As well as exploring the Bill’s key provisions, and their likely timing, we also take a brief look at the Government’s recently announced plans to legislate to address the uncertainty caused by the Virgin Media decision.
