Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are committed to ensuring people achieve financial security in later life.
That is why we prioritised the Pensions Investment Review and reforms in the Pension Schemes Bill – so that we can be confident savers automatically enrolled into workplace pension schemes can rightly enjoy the best possible outcomes.
Our assessment of the pensions system is that the job is only half finished. In August we published a detailed report with our analysis, including on Automatic Enrolment and those groups not benefitting from pensions or undersaving. Furthermore, we have revived the Pensions Commission to address these very matters of adequacy, fairness and sustainability, especially for lower earners.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to implement the Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We are committed to ensuring people achieve financial security in later life.
That is why we prioritised the Pensions Investment Review and reforms in the Pension Schemes Bill – so that we can be confident savers automatically enrolled into workplace pension schemes can rightly enjoy the best possible outcomes.
Our assessment of the pensions system is that the job is only half finished. In August we published a detailed report with our analysis, including on Automatic Enrolment and those groups not benefitting from pensions or undersaving. Furthermore, we have revived the Pensions Commission to address these very matters of adequacy, fairness and sustainability, especially for lower earners.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the guidance entitled Pensions dashboards: guidance on connection: the staged timetable, published 25 March 2024, if she will set out a revised timeline for making the connection of occupational pension schemes to the Pensions Dashboard Scheme available to the public.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to the existing timetable in guidance for the connection of occupational pension schemes and personal and stakeholder providers to the pensions dashboards ecosystem, as well as the overall connection deadline of 31 October 2026.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the £1.2 million spent on research by National Employment Savings Trust in fiscal year 2013-14.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) Corporation’s Annual Report and Accounts 2013 /14 shows that £1.252 million was spent on research related activity.
This expenditure included:
· Projects with employers and advisors to help predict operational volumes for NEST in the peak employer staging months of summer 2014. This helped NEST Corporation to develop the right levels of resourcing and service to deal with the increased numbers of staging employers.
· Customer satisfaction research with NEST employers and members, to understand their views on their experience of NEST.
· Research on testing of communications materials for members and service proposition testing for small companies.
Research related communications activity mainly focused on communicating with employers and intermediaries to prepare them for automatic and enrolment and how to use NEST.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the National Employment Savings Trust is exempt from the requirements for improved governance of workplace pensions schemes set out in his Department's publication, Better workplace pensions: Putting savers' interests first, Cm 9000.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) is subject to most of the requirements set out in Better workplace pensions: Putting savers' interests first, Cm 9000. There are a small number of areas where NEST already has particular (usually stronger) governance requirements set out in the Pensions Act 2008. The rationale for exempting NEST from certain provisions in the Occupational Pension Scheme (Charges and Governance) Regulations 2015 was so as not to contradict these primary legislation requirements.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the National Employment Savings Trust plans to complete (a) the independent assurance audit and (b) the other constituent parts of the voluntary assurance framework.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
NEST Corporation is currently producing an independent assurance report on the AAF 02/07 standard for Master Trust Schemes.
In the autumn of 2014, NEST Corporation published a governance statement which covered many of the requirements of the independent assurance report and which was warmly welcomed by the Pensions Regulator. This governance statement was examined and signed off by the NEST Corporation Board.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what forecast he has made of when his Department's loan to meet the scheme implementation costs for the National Employment Savings Trust will be repaid; and what the process is for that repayment.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The exact amount of loan finance required to establish NEST and the length of the loan will ultimately depend on a range of factors including: NEST’s final costs; the nature and size of NEST’s membership and the revenue that this generates; and other macroeconomic factors. Once NEST’s revenues from charges exceed its annual running costs, it will begin to repay the capital loan. The European Commission’s decision on State aid for NEST noted a wide range of possible scenarios for the length of the loan ranging between 20 and 38 years.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what representations he has received on the transparency of the fees charged for the Health and Safety Executive's Fee for Intervention.
Answered by Lord Harper
I have received two representations about the transparency of fees invoiced to particular companies under the Fee for Intervention scheme, which were dated 12 November and 10 December 2014.
An independent Panel has reviewed the implementation of Fee for Intervention, including the financial impact on small and medium enterprises found to be in breach in a harsh economic environment. The independent panel concluded that Fee for Intervention had proven effective in achieving the overarching policy aim of shifting the cost of health and safety regulation from the public purse to those businesses that break health and safety laws. It further concluded that the low level of appeals underlined that there was a low level of dissatisfaction amongst duty-holders about the practice, as well as the principle, of the scheme. The majority of invoices are being paid and HSE is taking a proportionate and supportive approach to those who are in financial difficulty.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what representations he has received on the standard of service provided by the Health and Safety Executive when engaged in an intervention inspection; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Harper
In the past year I have received two representations regarding the standard of service provided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) when engaged in an intervention inspection.
In June 2014 HSE started to conduct a monthly survey of a sample of dutyholders which have received an inspection. Between June and November 2014 this survey showed that 84% of respondents said their impression of HSE was favourable, and 14% had a neutral impression of HSE following inspection.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many invoices issued under the Health and Safety Executive's Fee for Intervention scheme have been queried by invoicees since October 2012; and what proportion of the total number of invoices such invoices amount to.
Answered by Lord Harper
Between October 2012 and December 2014, HSE issued 32, 862 invoices under the FFI scheme.
HSE received queries on 1008 invoices between October 2012 and 2 February 2015. This represents 3% of all the invoices issued.