Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they, the Pensions Regulator, or the Pension Protection Fund have in the last three years had discussions with BHS, Lady Green or Sir Philip Green concerning the deficit in the BHS pension fund and a scheme to reduce that deficit.

Baroness Altmann

The Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund are independent bodies and in carrying out their functions they may meet individuals involved with pension schemes.

Ministers have engaged with a range of sponsoring employers of Defined Benefit pensions schemes as a matter of routine, including Sir Philip Green, as part of their normal considerations of the pensions landscape but oversight of the scheme funding regime for Defined Benefit schemes is a matter for the Pensions Regulator. It would not be appropriate for Ministers to intervene in individual cases or to discuss with the Regulator, the Pension Protection Fund or the scheme sponsor how a particular scheme’s pension deficit should be mitigated.