Examination of Witnesses

Part of Pension Schemes Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:30 am on 21 October 2014.

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David Geale: Our role has been to set the standards, so we are consulting on the standards now. We have had around 150 responses to that consultation, and we will publish the final standards later this year. Our role then will be to make sure that firms of delivery partners stick to the framework of the guidance guarantee; so they stick within that framework of just explaining to people the options available to them and the potential implications of those options, referring them to advice where needed—not straying into “Actually, this is what you should do,” or “This is what I would suggest you do,” and so on, which we would consider to be advice.

Then our role is to monitor that, so we are developing our monitoring strategy for how we will work with the delivery partners to ensure compliance with those standards and that they do not stray into advice. Where that does happen we have the power to make recommendations to the delivery partners to change their process and/or to the Treasury, to take action as necessary.