Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their consultation document <i>Freedom and Choice in Pensions</i> (CM 8901), on what they intend to spend the £20 million allocated in the budget for financial advice and guidance.

At Budget the government announced that it will be making available a development fund of £20 million, which will fund preparatory work to get the guidance guarantee up and running in good time for April 2015.

The Treasury has obtained approval for an advance of £10 million from the Contingencies Fund, to allow work on service design and implementation to proceed. I refer the noble Lord to the WMS of 21^st July. The Treasury will be publishing a progress update on the service design and implementation strategy in the autumn.