Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 come into force

The Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 came into force on 12 December 2022, 21 days after they were made on 21 November 2022¹. They were made by the Secretary of State under powers in sections 238A, 238B, 238D, 238E, 238G and 315(2), (4) and (5) of the Pensions Act 2004, and extend to England and Wales and Scotland¹.

The regulations set out which occupational pension schemes must connect to the pensions dashboards ecosystem, and the requirements for a service to be a qualifying pensions dashboard service¹. Parts 3 and 4 apply to trustees or managers of a relevant occupational pension scheme where the scheme existed on the reference date and had 100 or more relevant members on that date, where it had fewer than 100 then but reached 100 or more later, or where it was established after the reference date with 100 or more members¹. The rules continue to apply if membership later falls below 100, unless it falls to zero¹. Schemes with fewer than 100 relevant members may connect voluntarily¹. Parts 3 and 4 do not apply where a scheme's main administration is outside Great Britain, where it is not registrable with the Regulator (except certain public service schemes), or to a registrable public service scheme relating to persons in regulation 3 of the Civil Service (Other Crown Servants) Pension Scheme Regulations 2016¹.

Public use of dashboards waits on a date specified by the Secretary of State, called the Dashboards Available Point¹. Before that point, dashboard services are only available to individuals invited by or on behalf of the Money and Pensions Service to support testing or service improvements¹. The Secretary of State must issue a notice specifying the Dashboards Available Point at least six months beforehand, must be satisfied the ecosystem is ready for widespread public use, and must consult the Money and Pensions Service, the Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority before issuing it¹.

The regulations also set data and complaint handling duties. A dashboard service must not store view data unless it is held as temporary caching for the sole purpose of displaying it in a single session¹. Providers must give users information on how to complain about the service or about their own acts or omissions¹. Information must be retained for at least six years from the end of the calendar year to which it relates, and audit-related records for at least six years from the end of the scheme year to which they relate¹. Audits are required both before connection and annually thereafter¹.

Why it matters for households

The regulations are the legal groundwork for a service that lets people see information about their pensions held across different schemes in one place¹. They matter first to members of larger occupational schemes: schemes with 100 or more relevant members are within scope, and the duty to connect is triggered by membership numbers on the reference date or later¹. Members of smaller schemes are not covered by the connection duty unless their scheme chooses to connect voluntarily¹.

The regulations do not switch the service on for the public. Until the Dashboards Available Point, only people invited by or on behalf of the Money and Pensions Service can use dashboard services, for testing or service improvements¹. The Secretary of State must give at least six months' notice of that date¹. The regulations have been amended since: legislation.gov.uk records substitutions made on 9 August 2023 by the Pensions Dashboards (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/858), and earlier amendment versions dated 20 April 2023¹. The original text also provided for a connection deadline that could be deferred by permission of the Secretary of State, within 12 months of that deadline¹.

What happens next

The regulations provide for the Secretary of State to issue a notice specifying the Dashboards Available Point at least six months in advance, and to publish it on the gov.uk homepage for the Department for Work and Pensions and take reasonable steps to publicise it¹. No date for the Dashboards Available Point is given in the regulations themselves¹. The Pensions Regulator supervises workplace pension schemes, and the Money and Pensions Service and the Financial Conduct Authority also have roles in the dashboards standards and oversight arrangements set out in the regulations¹.