Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether any additional resources will be available to HM Revenue and Customs for conducting due diligence on newly-registered pension schemes.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has an active compliance programme to tackle all attempted abuse of the pension tax rules. As part of this, they continue to work to identify promoters and schemes which seek to abuse the pension tax rules. The fit and proper person test for scheme administrators introduced in September 2014 is another important tool to help HMRC tackle these schemes and to protect members’ funds. HMRC takes a risk based approach to compliance which allows it to match resource at the right time to tackle this abuse. This resource includes pension specialists, and where appropriate, staff from many other areas across HMRC. HMRC is also working with other Government Departments to ensure that appropriate action is taken to stop any abuse.