Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the incidence of pension fraud in (a) Scotland and (b) the UK since the introduction of the pension freedoms announced in the Budget 2014.

The government takes the threat of pension scams very seriously, and is committed to protecting people by helping them to avoid putting their money into scams and by pursuing fraudsters wherever possible.

It is for this reason that the Government established Project Bloom, a multi-department, multi-agency group of officials to help co-ordinate action to tackle scams, monitor trends and share intelligence on emerging threats. Members include the National Crime Agency, police forces, Pension Wise, regulators and key Government departments.

However, the government recognises that more needs to be done. We have heard the concerns raised that the pension freedoms may make people more vulnerable to scams involving their pension savings and that is why we have taken positive action and announced, at autumn statement, that we will consult on a package of measures aimed at tackling 3 different areas of pensions scams:

• a ban on cold calling in relation to pensions to help stop fraudsters contacting individuals;
  
• limiting the statutory right to transfer to some occupational pension schemes, and
  
• making it harder for fraudsters to open small pension schemes

The intention is that the consultation will be launched before Christmas; and next steps will be announced at Budget 2017