Draft Pensions Dashboards (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Matt Rodda Excerpts

Monday 3rd July 2023 General Committees

[Matt Rodda (Reading East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I also thank the Minister for updating the Committee on this important matter. The Opposition support the dashboard. It is an important initiative that should offer a great deal of benefits to pension savers and the pensions industry.

However, I have noted the Minister’s remarks today, the explanatory note, the considerable delays that she has described to us, the cost overruns and the reliance on guidance—all of which is somewhat concerning. I hope that the Minister will address some questions.

Before I ask the Minister some direct questions, however, I will mention some of the valid points about the delays raised by key members of the pensions industry. Tom Selby, the head of retirement policy at AJ Bell, for example, described the delays as “hugely disappointing”. Others have described the whole dashboards project as one that has been

“beset by difficulties and delays from the get go.”

I hope the Minister will address those concerns and reassure me and colleagues across the House on the future progress of this important project.

I realise that the Minster has not been leading the project in its entirety herself; it has been a project supervised by several Ministers. I hope she will be able to update us on how she feels the delays will affect savers, how they will affect the wider pensions industry, which is a very important part of the financial services industry, and what measures she plans to use to ensure compliance.

The Minister talked about the reliance on guidance and the way that it will work, as opposed to the Government’s previous mandatory approach. Will she reassure us that she is confident about hitting the October 2026 deadline, because we have already seen significant slippage? This is a really important programme that means that pension savers can look at and understand their savings and plan for the future. That is very important at a time when there is a considerable body of evidence showing that people are not saving enough for their pensions, and that they may not know where their pension pots are. I hope the Minister can reassure me on those points.