Pensions aspects of HM Treasury’s update on regulation action plan

HM Treasury has published an update regarding its March 2025 regulation action plan, which set out the Government's next steps in its approach to ensuring regulators and regulation support economic growth and innovation.

The March 2025 action plan set out 60 "key regulator pledges" made by regulatory bodies including the Pensions Regulator, FCA, PRA and Information Commissioner's Office.

According to the plan, these must have a "tangible effect" on driving growth and investment and be implementable within the next 12 months. Six months on, HM Treasury hasissued an update and details of regulators' next steps. Annex B to the update provides information about regulators' progress to date in implementing the key pledges.   

In relation to the Pensions Regulator's specific pledges, Annex B provides the following updates. 

• Reviewing master trust capital reserve requirements. A "desktop analysis" of master trust reserving has been completed and the Regulator will engage directly with master trusts and industry stakeholders in October 2025, with findings to be published by the end of December 2025.
• Innovation framework. The Regulator launched its Innovation Support Service in May 2025, enabling the pensions industry to engage with it directly on innovations.
• Reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens. By moving to an "outcome-focussed supervisory model", the Regulator has started identifying activities that impose unnecessary regulatory burdens. Among other things, the Regulator is on track to improve its data collection processes by March 2026.
• Consolidation and productive investments. The Regulator is working with the DWP on a proposed consultation on reforms to the value for money (VFM) framework in December 2025 and will also publish guidance to support the consolidation of smaller DC schemes. In early 2026, the Regulator will ask for master trusts' asset allocation data as of December 31, 2025, to better understand their investment performance.