The government has confirmed that it will continue work on broader pension reform issues alongside the work outlined on the pensions roadmap, suggesting that some of this work could be seen before the end of the five-year timeline mapped out by the government.

The government recently shared its final Pension Investment Review report, alongside the Pension Schemes Bill, which is more than 100 pages long and covers a myriad of pension reforms and initiatives.

This includes plans to encourage further industry consolidation, Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pooling, lifting restrictions on defined benefit (DB) surpluses, and efforts to address small pension pots and improve value for money.

Despite the number of reforms included in the bill, industry experts have pointed out that there are also broader pension issues that need to be addressed separately from the bill.

Some of this work is already underway, as the government's pension roadmap, shared alongside the bill, confirmed that it will look to lay regulations to extend collective defined contribution (CDC) to multi-employers this autumn, to come into force in 2026.

In addition to this, the government confirmed that it will introduce legislation to deal with issues arising from the Virgin Media judgment, in order to give affected pension schemes the ability to retrospectively obtain written actuarial confirmation that historic benefit changes met the necessary standards.

Separate from the review and bill, the government is also continuing to consider the possible role for a government consolidator for DB schemes, run by the Pension Protection Fund.

It also reiterated its intention to consult on measures to improve the governance of trust-based schemes later this year, to ensure the necessary safeguards and flexibilities are in place to meet the demands of the evolving pensions landscape.

In addition to this, work is still needed to address issues around anti-scam pension transfer regulations, after the government previously confirmed that it was looking to pick up the work done to improve the transfer experience, without undermining policy intent.

Asked shortly after the publishing of the Pension Schemes Bill, Pensions Minister, Torsten Bell, confirmed that work on these issues will continue alongside the work outlined in the roadmap.

Despite industry concerns that the omission of some issues from the roadmap could mean they were being put to the 'back of the queue', Torsten argued that "you definitely shouldn't assume that changes in that respect are slotting in after 2030".

This is not the only area of work that the industry is still waiting for further timings on, though, as the government's roadmap acknowledged that there are also "unsolved challenges" in the DB system, which the government is looking to address as part of the second phase of its review.

The second phase of the review, which is set to begin "in the near future", will focus on adequacy, with a " comprehensive" assessment of the adequacy of retirement incomes for future generations of pensioners.

"The review will consider the balance of all three pillars of the UK system – state, occupational and personal wealth – and how best they should combine to ensure everyone can expect a financially secure retirement," the government stated.

Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, recently confirmed that the government plans to launch the second phase of the Pension Review in the "coming months", while the reviewers, scope, and terms of reference will be shared "in due course".

Bell also reassured industry experts that despite growing concern around the lack of progress on phase two of the review, "you're not gonna be waiting forever for that", having previously branded reports of a delay to the review as "garbage".

Industry frustration has been growing in the meantime, however, with some in the industry warning that "time is running out" to address pension adequacy issues, suggesting that any legislation off the back of phase two of the review could take "years" to implement.

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