Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions his Department has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on the protection of savers automatically enrolled into contract-based pension schemes from climate change risks material to their investments.

The Department for Work and Pensions works closely with the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure that pension savers benefit from comparable protection whether they are members of an occupational pension scheme or a workplace personal pension scheme. This includes considering together how best to ensure that schemes take appropriate account of climate change risks and other financial risks material to their investments.

Last month government laid regulations which, from October 2019, will require trustees of occupational pension schemes to set out how they take account of climate change and other risks that are material to their investments.

The Financial Conduct Authority will consult in the first quarter of 2019 on a rule change to require the Independent Governance Committees of workplace personal pension schemes to report on their firm’s policy on evaluating financially material considerations, including climate change.