Consultation outcome

Pensions Investment Review: Unlocking the UK pensions market for growth

From:: Department for Work and Pensions, HM Treasury and Emma Reynolds MP
Published: 14 November 2024
Last updated: 29 May 2025 — See all updates

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Read the full outcome

Unlocking the UK pensions market for growth Consultation Response

PDF, 353 KB, 47 pages

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Detail of outcome

The response sets out the government’s final policy positions, building on the feedback provided to the consultation. Legislation to implement the reforms will form part of the forthcoming Pension Schemes Bill.

The reforms include:

setting minimum scale and investment capability requirements, with a transition pathway provided for schemes that will be able to reach scale by 2035
introducing a regulatory approval process for creating new default arrangements
a contractual override mechanism for the bulk transfer of assets, where it is in savers’ interests
a commitment to a market fragmentation review, to commence in 2029

The government has decided not to further explore measures proposed to affect the role of employers or advisers in the DC workplace market, at this time.

The government has also decided not to introduce reforms regarding differential pricing.

Original consultation

Summary

This consultation sets out proposed reforms to deliver scale, accelerate consolidation and drive a focus on value over cost in the Defined Contribution (DC) workplace pensions market and explores other changes.

This consultation ran from
9:30pm on 14 November 2024 to 11:59pm on 16 January 2025

Consultation description

The consultation sets out proposals to legislate for a minimum size and maximum number of Defined Contribution (DC) pension scheme default funds. These measures will enable the DC market to move to fewer, larger funds which are better placed to invest in productive assets and more able to deliver greater returns for members.

To support these measures, we also set out proposals to enable contractual overrides for contract-based pension arrangements, subject to appropriate member protections. This would enable transfers without consent into either a trust-based or contract-based arrangement and would aid the shift to fewer, larger schemes.

We also use this consultation to explore the role of differential pricing in a consolidated market and the roles of employers and their advisers and seeks views on the merits of proposals to encourage them to focus on value from their workplace pensions.

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