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

TPR issues new data strategy aimed at improving data standards across the industry

TPR announced the publication of its new data strategy on 3 March 2025. Aimed at data professionals and those involved in managing pension schemes, as well as TPR itself, the strategy outlines its vision for the coming years, including expected changes at TPR and how these will affect the way in which it works with others. As well as setting clear standards and expectations for data, TPR also intends to modernise how it collects data to reduce the burden on others.

TPR’s research has found that thousands of pension schemes are still holding some of their data non-digitally, noting that poor data quality can lead to “inconsistencies, increased costs and security risks”. The data strategy “challenges” schemes to improve data standards which TPR hopes, in turn, will benefit the wider market through “increased efficiencies, enhanced innovation and reduced regulatory burden”. With the pensions industry likewise encouraged to capitalise on the “data revolution”,  the strategy calls on pension schemes to “safely adopt” new technologies, including AI.

TPR will create a new working group focused on helping the pensions industry to improve “its use of digital tools, data and technology in savers’ interests”. It also intends to collaborate with pensions and technology experts, including professionals from other fields, with a view to designing a framework for responsible innovation in pensions.

TPR research shows number of DC schemes has fallen to under 1,000 for the first time

According to TPR’s new data on the 2024 DC landscape, the number of (non-micro) DC and hybrid schemes decreased to 920 in 2024 despite the number of members increasing by 6%. The decrease in the number of schemes represents a 15% fall from the previous year and is the first time this number has been under 1,000. TPR’s press release comments that this reduction was “primarily” driven by schemes with fewer than 5,000 members.

PDP announces the first three participants to complete all stages required to connect to the Pensions Dashboards

On 5 March 2025, the PDP announced that participants from Heywood, Legal and General and Pension Fusion have completed all the stages required to connect to the dashboards ecosystem, having passed the final stage on 4 March 2025. These participants were part of a group of around 20 “volunteer participants” who have all started their connection journeys.

All three organisations have completed “Operational Acceptance Testing”, which is the final check designed to ensure that the system works in a real-world setting.