Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the press notice entitled Pension reforms to go further to unlock billions to drive growth and boost working peoples’ pension pots, published on 28 January 2025, what estimate she has made of the potential value of additional business investment as a result of reforms to the occupational defined benefit pension funds over the next five years.

The Government will pave the way for more well-funded defined benefit pension schemes to share surplus funds with sponsoring employers and members, subject to stringent funding safeguards.

It will be for individual trustees and employers to determine how best to use surplus funding. The amount of surplus will vary from scheme to scheme and trustees will need to be satisfied that sharing surplus is in the interest of their scheme members.

The Government will be setting out the details of the surplus policy in in in its response to the Options for Defined Benefits consultation, due this Spring.