Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to introduce safeguards for pensions against future (a) sale and (b) transfer of pension funds to (i) insurance companies and (ii) other entities.

Insurance buyout is a long-established way of ensuring members get the full value of their promised defined benefit (DB) pensions from an insurer, backed by a 100 per cent compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This is widely regarded as a positive outcome for scheme beneficiaries.

The Pension Schemes Bill 2025 introduces a regulatory framework for “superfunds”, which can consolidate closed DB schemes where buyout is unaffordable. Member security is at the heart of the new regime, which has rigorous safeguards and robust funding requirements. Superfunds will also continue to be overseen by the Pensions Regulator and underpinned by the Pensions Protection Fund.

Trustees must be satisfied that transferring the liabilities of the scheme to an insurer, or to a superfund, is in the best interests of the members before any transfer can take place.