Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that historic communications and reasonable expectations of pension scheme members are reflected in trustee governance and decision-making.

The Pensions Regulator has published guidance on trustee duties and expects trustees, when considering discretionary benefit increases, to assess whether doing so would be in members’ interests, including any consistent history or practice of making such awards.

DWP’s recent consultation, “Trust based pension schemes: Trustees and governance, building a stronger future” sought views on ensuring that trustee boards take into account the perspectives of members in their decision making. We are currently analysing responses to the consultation.