Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered the risk to the solvency of the Pension Protection Fund of owners of companies with funding deficits selling the business for a nominal consideration or to an unsuitable purchaser.

The independent Pensions Regulator, which oversees worked based pensions, has a statutory objective to reduce the risk of situations arising which may lead to compensation being payable from the Pension Protection Fund. It was given a significant range of anti-avoidance powers in the Pensions Act 2004, which can be deployed where it is appropriate and where the legal tests laid down in legislation are met.