Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has assessed the potential merits of introducing measures outside of the Pension Schemes Bill to protect the real terms value of pre-1997 defined benefit pension schemes.

We recognise that the absence of indexation on pension rights accrued before April 1997 can erode the value of pensions over time and affect members who rely on these benefits in retirement.

The reforms we have introduced through the Pension Schemes Bill will enable more trustees of well funded defined benefit schemes to share surplus with sponsoring employers, and allow them to negotiate additional benefits for members, including discretionary indexation. More broadly and outside the Pension Schemes Bill, the Pensions Regulator already expects trustees to consider whether members would benefit from a discretionary increase and to take account of any history of making such awards.