Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 25
Fifth report: Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension freedoms: Pension scams
Published 28 Mar 2021
Paragraph 111
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)
There are many bodies with potentially overlapping enforcement responsibilities relating to pension scams. These include, but are not necessarily limited to: the Pensions Regulator, the FCA, the Insolvency Service, HMRC, Information Commissioner’s Office, the police service, the Serious Fraud Office, the Pensions Ombudsman and the Financial Ombudsman Service. The fragmentation of reporting, investigation and enforcement around pension scams has made tackling pension scams more difficult. We recommend that, as the taskforce responsible for coordinating the response to pension scams, Project Bloom should publish an accessible Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension freedomss Pension scams 61 and publicly available document outlining the roles and responsibilities of all bodies involved in tackling pension scams. It should also report annually on the amount lost by, and reimbursed to, pension savers.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Fifth report: Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension freedoms: Pension scams (HC 648), paragraph 111, 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.