The Pensions Minister, Laura Trott, has provided an update on the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) reset, with amended regulations to include connection deadline of 31 October 2026.

In a written statement, Trott confirmed that, rather than setting out the entire staging timeline in legislation, the government will instead set this out in guidance, which it will collaborate on with industry "this year".

In addition to this, Trott clarified that the 31 October 2026 connection deadline is not the Dashboards Available Point (DAP), suggesting that the DAP "could be earlier".

In her statement, Trott explained that she is laying amending regulations with a "new approach to delivery", which aims to allow the government and PDP to work more collaboratively with the pensions industry.

Trott stated: "Pensions dashboards will transform the way in which people plan for retirement.

"On 2 March 2023, I announced that the PDP would require additional time to deliver the connection of pension providers and schemes, in accordance with the connection deadlines set out in the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 and the Financial Conduct Authority’s corresponding pensions dashboard rules.

"More time is needed to deliver this complex build, and for the pensions industry to help facilitate the successful connection of a wide range of different IT systems to the dashboards digital architecture.

"In recognition that the requirement to connect to the digital architecture should remain mandatory, we will include a connection deadline in legislation of 31 October 2026.

"This is not the Dashboards Available Point – the point at which dashboards will be accessible to the public – which could be earlier than this.

"The government remains as committed as ever to making pensions dashboards a reality and we are ambitious about their delivery. I am confident that this re-appraised approach will enable us to make significant progress on delivering dashboards safely and securely, enabling consumers to take advantage of their benefits to plan for retirement."

However, PDP technology partner, Equisoft, branded the announcement as "very disapointing", noting that the proposed deadlines for mandatory adoption have "in effect been pushed two and a half years".

Equisoft product sales director, Howard Finnegan, stated: "We believe that without compulsion and with no incentive for early adoption most schemes will not follow the guideline dates.

"Why would companies incur costs a year or more ahead of when required by the regulator? This attitude was confirmed by a webinar we ran last week when over three-quarters of those we polled at the event said they would connect to the PDP eco-system six months or less before the regulatory deadline date.

"With the mandatory PDP connection deadline extended we expect most schemes will put their projects on hold, deal with more pressing challenges and restart them within 12 months of the regulatory deadline.

"This was confirmed by our recent polling when 100 per cent of those surveyed said they have other more significant programmes already conflicting with their PDP project.

"Not only will this mean that all the expertise and experience built up over the past year or more will dissipate as schemes and administrators now have higher priority change projects, including regulatory initiatives such as Consumer Duty but stopping or mothballing a change programme and then restarting it a year or more later will add considerable costs to the overall project.

"We believe this approach will create an implementation and registration capacity crunch in the six months leading up to the regulatory deadline date as during that period tens of thousands of schemes will want to onboard with an ISP, register and connect with PDP eco-system."

However, Bravura principal consultant, Jonathan Hawkins, argued that while there is a worry that legislation differs in gravity from guidance, "it will ultimately be up to the industry to lead by example and the regulators to ensure appropriate carrots and sticks are in place to ensure the updated timelines are adhered to".

“Now that we have a backstop date in place (October 2026), the PDP must prioritise reinstating connections to the Central Digital Architecture (CDA), which will allow pension providers and firms to push ahead with their onboarding journeys," he continued.

“We look forward to continuing to collaborate with the PDP and our industry partners, as well as further updates on the reset expected later this year. Any further delays in connecting to the CDA will likely eat into the time pensions providers and schemes have to deliver so it is important this is back on-track sooner rather than later.”

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