Horizon scanning

Horizon scanning

This subtopic contains:

•
a Practice Note setting out key dates and future developments for pension lawyers to look out for. See: Horizon scanning—Pensions
•
a Practice Note providing a summary of the provisions of the Pension Schemes Bill (PSB) and tracking

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Latest Pensions News

Government launches consultation on the expansion of the UK Treasury Bill market

On 5 January 2026, HM Treasury and the Debt Management Office (DMO) launched a consultation on expanding and deepening the UK Treasury Bill (T-bill) market as announced in the Autumn Budget 2025. The government want to promote participation in the T-bill market through its primary market operations and the development of an active, liquid secondary market. T-bills are another source of finance for the government, issued weekly at auction by the DMO, which are sold at discount to their maturity value. They currently do not trade on any secondary market, so are generally held by investors to maturity, which can be between 1 day and 364 days after issue.

Pension Schemes Bill clears Second Reading amid warnings of extensive amendments in Committee

Pensions analysis: The Pension Schemes Bill (the Bill) was brought from the House of Commons on 5 December 2025 where it was read a first time in the House of Lords (HoL). On 18 December 2025 the Bill was read a second time and committed to a Grand Committee for detailed scrutiny, with the order of consideration agreed. No amendments were decided at this stage, in line with standard Second Reading procedure. While the outcome of the Second Reading debate in the HoL confirmed broad support for the reforms, particularly on consolidation, the value-for-money measures and retirement defaults, it also highlighted the Bill’s investment mandation power and fiduciary duty implications as key issues for later stages. The Bill has now moved to Grand Committee which will begin a line-by-line examination of its provisions on 12 January 2026.

DBT publishes draft statutory guidance clarifying ‘significant influence or control’ for PSCs in companies and LLPs

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has published two draft statutory guidance documents on the meaning of ‘significant influence or control’ for the purposes of the Register of People with Significant Control (PSCs) under schedule 1A to the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006)—one applying to companies and the other to limited liability partnerships (LLPs). Both draft guidance documents will lie before Parliament for 40 days, during which either House may resolve that they should not be approved.

Budget 2025—salary sacrifice reforms

Share Incentives analysis: Elissavet Grout is a partner in the Tax Department at Travers Smith LLP and heads the firm's Incentives and Remuneration group. Elissavet has extensive experience in advising on the design, implementation and tax treatment of remuneration arrangements for a wide range of UK and international clients. In this article, Elissavet considers the cap on National Insurance contributions (NICs) relief for pension contributions made as part of a salary sacrifice arrangement announced at Budget 2025. The Bill to give the Treasury the power to introduce the change with effect from April 2029 was introduced to Parliament on 4 December.