Pensions Weekly Update – 14 October 2025

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Here is our weekly summary of key legal and regulatory developments relevant to occupational pension schemes that you might have missed, with links for further information.

Parliamentary recess has ended this week, which means that the Pension Schemes Bill will once again be under the spotlight. While a date has not yet been set, the bill is now at the report stage, following its consideration by the public bill committee. A version of the bill incorporating the amendments agreed by the public bill committee is available online.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is holding a dashboards webinar on 3 December at 2:30 p.m. The webinar will cover some of the key lessons learned from those who have already connected to dashboards and will include a live Q&A session.
TPR has issued a press release linking to a survey of 200 defined contribution (DC) schemes. Among the results, it is encouraging to note that all surveyed master trusts offer decumulation benefit options to members. Many schemes are reviewing their decumulation offerings ahead of guided retirement duties coming into force under the Pension Schemes Bill. 97% of memberships are in a scheme that demonstrates all elements associated with assessing value for money (VFM), however only one-third of smaller schemes have completed the more detailed VFM assessment that applies to schemes with less than £100 million of assets.
The Pensions Data Project was established to provide a dataset of individual retirement savings across multiple providers to fill a critical evidence gap in the UK pensions landscape. The findings in its latest report are based on anonymised data from five large master trusts. The report highlights that over 2 million small DC pension pots held within these five master trusts could be consolidated if the master trusts become default consolidator schemes (under proposals in the Pension Schemes Bill). The report also highlights gender and age disparities in pension savings.
The Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) has published its response to the call for evidence made by the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee on reforming inheritance tax (IHT), focused on unused pension funds and death benefits. The SPP says that it agrees with the approach that the personal representatives (PRs) of a deceased member are best placed to calculate and report inheritance tax due. The SPP does not think that PRs should be able to request a pension scheme to pay IHT in the way that a beneficiary can. The SPP notes that the intended timescales under the draft legislation continue to be a real concern for both PRs and pension scheme administrators. While the initial long lead in to the introduction of IHT on unused pension funds was appreciated, the SPP notes that 6 April 2027 is drawing closer and the timetable for implementation is getting tighter.
See the general code of practice area of our pensions thought-leadership library for factsheets, news and resources.
Join our Labour & Employment colleagues at a webinar being held on 12 November, when they will explore the key legal and practical issues to consider when entering into settlement agreements in the workplace.