Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to introduce regulations amending section 37 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 for contracted out defined benefit schemes.

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.