Pensions Regulator: Pre-appointment hearing with Government’s preferred candidate for Chair
The Work and Pensions Committee will hold a pre-appointment hearing with the Government’s preferred candidate for the chair of the Pensions Regulator, Emma Douglas.
Meeting details
The session provides an opportunity to establish Ms Douglas’ suitability for the role and her priorities in taking up the role. She is currently Non-Executive Chair of Pensions UK and Wealth Policy Director for Aviva.
As the independent watchdog of work-based pension schemes in the UK, the Pensions Regulatorfunded by the DWP helps schemes understand their duties and ensures compliance. The Chair helps to provide it with strategic direction, creates constructive working relationships within the organisation, ministers and providers while holding executives to account.
Its importance has been highlighted by a swathe of recent moves, including the Pension Schemes Bill and the formation of the Pensions Commission, as well as delivery of the Pensions Dashboard that is intended to provide a one-stop-shop for everyone’s pension information.
However, the regulator has come under fire by the predecessor Committee which reported in 2024 that “two decades of regulatory policy caution [had] almost entirely destroyed the UK’s defined benefit system”.This was after an earlier report by the Committee found that the Pensions Regulator had failed to monitor the risk of such investments – which it was pushing - despite the Bank of England raising the danger back in 2018.
MPs on the Committee could ask the candidate to provide their own thoughts on the issue and lessons learned from the crisis.