Other News
Pensions Minister
In January, Torsten Bell replaced Emma Reynolds as Pensions Minister, in the historically unusual dual role that she held as Pensions Minister and Parliamentary Secretary at His Majesty’s Treasury. Emma Reynolds remains in post as Economic Secretary (HM Treasury).
Mansion House Agreement
The Mansion House Accord sees major providers and schemes express their intent to invest at least 10 per cent of their DC default funds in private markets by 2030, with half of that allocated to the UK.
17 UK pension providers have signed up, however, three major players are absent from the list of signatories; Scottish Widows, Fidelity and Hargreaves Lansdown have decided not to join the agreement.
Scottish Widows, which is the second biggest DC provider with assets at £97.7bn, explained its investments are already geared towards the UK, 21.5% of the £165bn in total assets it oversees already allocated to the UK. Meanwhile, Fidelity’s Investment Director, James Monk, said they would continue to invest in private market and UK assets, but questioned the size of the allocation to UK private markets. He explained that fewer constraints would give them more freedom to provide better member outcomes.
Small Pots Consolidation
On 24th April 2025, the Government confirmed the launch of a small pots consolidator to try to tackle the issue of forgotten pension pots. It will be introduced as part of the Pension Schemes Bill and builds on work carried out by the Small Pots Delivery Group (SPDG).
The announcement was met with a positive reaction from the pensions industry and The Pensions Regulator which has given its support.
Gender Pay Gap
The Pension Regulator has published its Diversity Pay Gap Report 2024 which shows that the mean and median pay gaps rose in 2024.
The mean gender pay gap rose by 0.7% to 3.9% and the median gender pay gap rose 2.7% to 8.4% both in favour of men. It also reveals there is a higher proportion of women in the lower paid, lower-middle quartile, and a lower proportion of women in the highest paid, upper quartile.
It also reported on disability, ethnicity, and sexual orientation gaps. The disability mean and median pay gaps increased to -2.6% and -1.5% respectively, in favour of employees with a disability. However, the ethnicity gap showed as in favour to white employees, and sexual orientation showed in favour of heterosexual employees.
The regulator has a target of 2% for the gender pay gap and recognises there is work to do.