Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions (a) Ministers of her Department and (b) officials in her Department have had with (i) Universities UK and (ii) the Universities and Colleges Union about changes to Universities Superannuation Scheme; what the outcomes of those meetings were; and if he will make a statement.

Universities are autonomous institutions and they are responsible for their own pension provision. Government has no role in relation to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) beyond regulation as is applied to all workplace pension schemes by The Pensions Regulator.

Neither my Rt hon. Friend the Secretary of State nor the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation has discussed the USS with Universities UK (UUK) or the University and College Union. Officials have sought updates from UUK on the latest developments regarding the USS. These were informal discussions and there were no outcomes.

The department has made no assessment of the impact of the proposed changes to the USS, and believes it would be inappropriate to comment.