Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with the Financial Conduct Authority on when the provisions under he Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018 on usage of Pension Wise guidance will be implemented.

Existing Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules require firms to signpost to their customers the availability of pensions guidance via Pension Wise. These include, for example, rules requiring firms to issue wake-up packs, designed to be one of the main sources of information for consumers about their options for accessing their pension savings.

Furthermore, the Money and Pension Service (MaPS) has undertaken trials to gather evidence on the possible ways to help encourage more people to take Pension Wise guidance before accessing their pension, fulfilling the requirement upon Government and the FCA set out in the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018.

We are now considering the outcome of the initial findings from the trials. However, we will not pre-emptively reach any conclusions. Once MaPS, with Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), publish an evaluation report of the trials in Summer 2020, we will use the evidence provided from the trials to help inform and assess the impact of the trials and conduct a consultation prior to implementing any regulations. For the FCA this also includes a duty to consult on the proposed rules. The due processes that DWP must take to lay regulations and the FCA must take to make rules will be followed.

The Secretary of State has not had discussions with the FCA in relation to this matter, however the FCA, DWP and MaPS are working closely together on this to progress the rules and regulations in a coordinated and timely fashion following the publication of the evaluation report.