Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 6
Fifth report: Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension freedoms: Pension scams
Published 28 Mar 2021
Paragraph 26
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Pension scams All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
At present there is no universal definition of pension scams and the range of potential activity which could be classed as a scam runs from sharp practice all the way to outright fraud. Project Bloom, the multi-agency taskforce set up to tackle pension scams, uses a broad definition of pension scams which has been developed by the Pension Scams Industry Group. We recommend that Project Bloom should continue to use the Pension Scams Industry Group definition of pension scams, which should be Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension freedomss Pension scams 57 treated as the industry standard. Members of Project Bloom may need to use different definitions within their own settings—for example, to avoid double counting a case of investment fraud under several different categories—but they should record data in a way that is compatible with the definition used by Project Bloom.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Fifth report: Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension freedoms: Pension scams (HC 648), paragraph 26, 28 March 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 July 2021 (deadline 28 May 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government "notes" the Committee's report, says it takes the recommendations "very seriously", and states it has "agreed with many of the recommendations from the outset" while it will "continue to look closely at the remaining recommendations".
- On the red and amber flag system for pension transfers, the Government agrees that the policy should be reviewed and that the flags' suitability forms part of that review, but "cannot" guarantee any legislative changes could be made "during this Parliament".
- It does not agree that inclusion on the FCA warning list should itself be a red flag, saying the Pension Schemes Act 2021 does not give powers "to use a third parties list or determination".
- It declines additional reporting by the City of London Police to Parliament on Action Fraud, saying it is "unnecessary" and oversight "should remain with the Government".
- The Government is "committed to publishing a comprehensive Fraud Action Plan after this year's Spending Review", but "cannot commit" to publishing details of its coordination with the Treasury.