Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact on defined benefit pension scheme members' (a) costs and (b) returns of the decrease in the proportion of defined benefit pensions scheme assets invested in company equities and increase in the proportion invested in government debt over the period 2008 to 2020.

It is for trustees to decide how funds in defined benefit (DB) occupational pension schemes are invested. They have a fiduciary duty to do so in the best interest of all their members. As most DB schemes are now closed, and the time available before benefits must be paid is reducing, a gradual shift towards investment in lower risk assets is to be expected.

It is the responsibility of the sponsoring employer to fund the promised benefits in a DB scheme, and these are not dependent on investment performance.

While DB provision has been in long term decline, since the introduction of Automatic Enrolment in 2012, defined contribution pension schemes have grown rapidly. As they are typically much less mature than DB schemes, they will tend to invest in higher proportions of return seeking assets such as equities. This Government is removing barriers to schemes investing directly in the UK economy through private markets, including by encouraging consolidation and requiring schemes to publish the net returns of their default arrangements.