Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to make regulations under the Pensions Schemes Act 2026 to require trustees to consider improvements to members' pre-1997 pension benefits before agreeing to the release of any surplus to sponsoring employers.

Defined Benefit pension scheme trustees are best placed to determine the appropriate use of any surplus for their individual scheme given their duty to act in the interests of scheme beneficiaries.

As part of any agreement to release surplus funds to the employer, trustees will be better placed to negotiate additional benefits for members, which could include discretionary indexation.

The draft Occupational Pension Schemes (Payments to Employer) Regulations 2027 set out the proposed requirements that would need to be met before surplus could be released.

This consultation on the draft regulations closed on 2 September and the Government will publish its response in due course.