Magnox Group of the ESPS

What’s the purpose of the Bill?

Building on the reforms outlined in the Pension Investment Review, the Bill aims to:

• Simplify how pensions are managed and understood
• Enable schemes to invest in a broader range of assets
• Deliver better long-term value and security for savers

According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Bill will make it easier for millions of people across the UK to manage their pensions and will help stimulate investment in the UK economy.

What does it mean for you?

At this stage, there are no immediate changes to how your pension benefits are managed or how you plan for retirement with the Scheme.

The Pension Schemes Bill is still making its way through Parliament. It was introduced on Thursday 5 June 2025, and had its second reading on Monday 7 July 2025. The next step is a detailed review by the Public Bill Committee later this year. After that, it will go through further stages before it can become law.

Even once the Bill is passed, the government will need to introduce additional regulations over the coming years to bring many of its measures into effect.

Check the news page regularly for any further announcements and to also keep up to date with news about your pension.

In the meantime, we have summarised the key aspects of the Bill below and you can also see the full Bill on  the UK Parliament website UK Parliament website.

Key measures in the Pension Schemes Bill

The Bill proposes reforms to workplace and private pensions, with the goal of helping people plan more effectively for retirement. It focuses on improving outcomes for members of both defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) schemes.

Targeting poor-performing schemes

Under a new Value for Money framework, DC schemes will be required to demonstrate they are delivering good outcomes for savers. This change aims to give savers access to better-performing schemes and a wider range of investment opportunities.

Multi-employer DC schemes (unless exempt) will be required to:

• hold at least £25 billion of assets in their main default arrangement by 2030, or
• to hold at least £10 billion by 2035, with a clear path to £25 billion

Consolidating small pension pots

Having multiple pension pots all over the place while moving between jobs over time can be hard to keep track of. The new rules will automatically bring pots of less than £1,000 together into one single 'consolidator' scheme. However, you will be able to opt out of it if you want to.

This is supported by the Pensions Dashboards initiative, which will allow individuals to view all their pension information securely in one place. 

The date for launching Pensions Dashboards hasn't been confirmed. Keep your member details up to date to ensure they match correctly with the dashboards when they launch.

Improving retirement outcomes for DC members and surplus sharing for DB schemes

For those whose retirement is getting close, the Bill includes measures that will require schemes to offer clear default options for turning savings into an income for life after work and overall simpler retirement choices. This will give savers more secure routes, that are easier to understand, to decide how they should use their benefits in the future.

All pension schemes will need to offer default routes to retirement income.

For well-funded DB schemes, trustees will be allowed to release surplus funds back to members and employers—when it is safe and appropriate to do so. This could unlock part of the £160 billion in surplus assets for reinvestment in the economy.

Reforming investment management in the LGPS

The Bill also includes reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), encouraging:

• Greater consolidation of assets
• Investment in local infrastructure, clean energy, and housing