Recommendation 31

The establishment in 2012 of Project Bloom, the multi-agency task force set up to tackle pension fraud was an attempt to overcome this. We support the creation of Project Bloom, but it has become clear that it does not have the capacity in its current form to achieve its objectives. It must now be given a statutory remit, an appropriate name—we propose “the Pension Scams Centre”—dedicated funding, and the staffing to manage a pension scams intelligence database alongside law enforcement. To avoid the risks of creating yet another regulatory body in an already crowded field, 62 Protecting pension savers—five years on from the pension freedomss Pension scams we recommend that the new Pension Scams Centre should have a board made up of representatives of Project Bloom’s current member organisations, with oversight of a pension scams hub. The hub’s responsibilities would include facilitating intelligence- sharing within the pensions industry and between regulatory bodies. The funding for both bodies should be ringfenced from existing budgets. The new organisation should consult on a public strategy with clear targets for reducing the incidence of pension scams and publish data demonstrating its success—or otherwise—in achieving these targets.