Pensions - Articles - TPR evidence to DWP committee tomorrow

 Ahead of that session, the Chair, Rt Hon Frank Field MP, has written to TPR (letter attached) with a separate set of questions on what powers the Regulator has to seize assets other than cash as part of any enforcement action seeking redress for the BHS pensioners. The Regulator will have an opportunity to answer questions about BHS as well as the wider regulatory framework in oral evidence tomorrow. Afterwards new Pensions Minister Richard Harrington will appear for the first time at the Committee to lay out the Government’s position on the future of defined benefit pension schemes and how to address the major ongoing issues surrounding them.

 The Chair has also written to the board of Arcadia and the trustees of the Arcadia pension fund seeking information about its recovery plan - the Arcadia pension fund is also well over £200 million in deficit - and the employer contributions to it.

 The Committee is also publishing a response from TPR outlining what action is being taken on the wider Arcadia pension fund (letter attached). TPR has used its powers under Section 72 of the Pensions Act 2004 to demand information about the Arcadia schemes.

 Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “We are pleased to see that The Pension Regulator has used its powers to demand information from Arcadia about yet another of Sir Philip Green’s pension funds that is going deep into deficit, but it is a terrible concern that it has got to this stage again. Is Sir Philip going to “sort” this one too?”

 On Wednesday 23 November 2016 in the Wilson Room and televised at www.parliamentlive.tv

 At 09:30 Lesley Titcomb, Chief Executive, The Pensions Regulator

 At 10:15 Richard Harrington MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Pensions