Government response to draft Pensions Dashboards Regulations consultation published

The Department for Work and Pensions published its response to the consultation on the draft Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 on 14 July 2022¹. The consultation, which sought views on the draft regulations, ran from 9:30am on 31 January 2022 to 11:45pm on 13 March 2022¹. The regulations apply to England, Scotland and Wales¹.

The consultation described pensions dashboards as "an electronic communications service intended to be used by individuals to access information about pensions"¹. Its stated purpose was to seek views on a range of policy questions relating to the creation of pensions dashboards, with an indicative draft of the regulations included to show how the policy was envisaged to be turned into law¹.

The consultation page was first published on 31 January 2022 and last updated on 15 July 2022¹. The update on 14 July 2022 added the government response to the draft regulations, and a further update on 15 July 2022 added a summary of key policies¹. The consultation has concluded¹.

The government response and the summary of key policies were published as HTML documents on the consultation page¹. The original consultation documents included the consultation document itself, a 137 page PDF, and the indicative draft regulations, a 28 page PDF¹. Response templates for the consultation questions were also provided in Word and OpenDocument formats¹.

The consultation page also links to a further consultation on pensions dashboards and to supplementary information on the Pensions Dashboards Programme¹. The outcome documents do not set out the detailed policy decisions in the text of the consultation page itself; those are contained in the linked government response and summary of key policies¹.

Why it matters for households

Pensions dashboards are intended to let individuals access information about their pensions in one place¹. The regulations being consulted on are the rules that would underpin that service, covering how it operates and who it applies to¹. The consultation applied to England, Scotland and Wales¹. The government response published on 14 July 2022 sets out how the policy would be turned into law, following the consultation that closed on 13 March 2022¹. The practical effect for households depends on the final regulations and the timetable for the service, which are set out in the government response and summary of key policies rather than in the consultation page text¹. No dates for the service going live are given in the consultation page text¹.

What happens next

The consultation has concluded and the government response has been published¹. The consultation page also links to a further consultation on pensions dashboards¹. No further steps or dates are set out in the consultation page text¹.