The personal pensions regime

The regulation of personal pensions

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has a wide regulatory role across financial markets. Any firm that carries out certain types of activities (known as regulated activities) in the UK must be directly authorised by the FCA and will fall within its regulatory ambit.

Regulated activities are set out in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001, SI 2001/544 and include the activity of establishing, operating and winding-up a personal pension scheme or stakeholder scheme (SI 2001/544, art 52).

While the task of regulating personal pension schemes falls primarily on the FCA, the Pensions Regulator plays a complementary role insofar as:

•
those schemes have direct payment arrangements in respect of one or more scheme members who are employees, and
•
the regulatory function in question focuses on:
1. ◦
  protecting the benefits of members of such schemes, and
2. ◦
  promoting the good administration of work-based pension schemes

For further information on the respective roles of the Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), areas of overlap in their regulatory work, and the

To view the latest version of this document and thousands of others like it, sign-in with LexisNexis or register for a free trial.

TAKE A FREE TRIAL

Latest Pensions News

PDP announces State Pension connection to pensions dashboards ecosystem

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has announced that the State Pension, provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has completed connection to the pensions dashboards ecosystem. This means individuals below State Pension age will be able to view their personal, workplace and State Pension information together in one place. The State Pension is based on an individual’s National Insurance record and forms an important part of retirement planning. The information shown on the pensions dashboard will be based on current legislation and updated as necessary if legislation changes. PDP confirms that dashboards will not replace the existing ‘Check your State Pension forecast’ service on GOV.UK.

Pensions weekly highlights—4 September 2025

This week’s edition of Pensions weekly highlights includes a review of key news stories, as well as dates for your diary and trackers.

PDP announces 40 million pension records now connected to dashboards ecosystem

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has announced that 13 industry participants, including the State Pension, have completed their connection to the pensions dashboards ecosystem, with over 40 million pension records from workplace and personal pensions now connected, representing more than half of the total records. PDP’s update highlights the significant value of industry feedback, which has driven improvements in guidance and operational processes to streamline the connection journey. Additionally, both the Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority have confirmed they will adopt a pragmatic approach in response to concerns regarding compliance with targeted connection dates, ensuring that organisations will not face regulatory intervention for delays caused by third-party dependencies, ahead of the final deadline on 31 October 2026.

TPR’s 2025 DB annual scheme funding report shows increased scheme surplus and shorter recovery plans

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published its 2025 analysis of funding levels and recovery plans in UK occupational defined benefit (DB) and hybrid pension schemes. The report covers tranche 18 valuations, with effective dates between September 2022 and September 2023, and includes data from 1,640 schemes. Therefore, these valuations are not subject to the new DB funding rules, which apply only from 22 September 2024. TPR’s report highlights that funding levels have improved markedly since the previous cycle. Sixty-two percent of schemes reported a surplus, up from 27% in tranche 15. The average assets to liabilities ratio rose from 89% to 104%. This improvement was consistent across all scheme sizes. Recovery plans have shortened significantly with only 38% of schemes required to submit a recovery plan, compared with 73% previously. Furthermore, the average recovery plan length fell from 6.3 years to 4.4 years. Among schemes in deficit in both tranches, 86% reported shorter plans, and over half brought forward their recovery plan end date by more than three years. The median end date is now 2027.