Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the judgement in Virgin Media Ltd v NTL Pension Trustees II Ltd, [2023] EWHC 1441 (Ch) on (a) occupational workplace pension schemes and (b) employers.

We have heard from pension schemes and industry representatives about the impacts arising from this judgment for pension schemes, their members, and sponsoring employers. Potential impacts are likely to be different for individual schemes.

Where schemes do not have a way to demonstrate that historic benefit changes met the reference scheme test, we recognise that this could lead to uncertainty and additional costs.

No final decisions have been made but we are actively considering our next steps and will provide an update in due course.