The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) would be an “obvious candidate” to run a potential defined benefit (DB) scheme public consolidator, according to Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) deputy director of DB and pension protection division, Fiona Frobisher.

Speaking at the PLSA Annual Conference 2023, Frobisher said it was an “open question” as to who could run the public consolidator, which was proposed in the DWP’s call for evidence on options for DB schemes, and mused over the role a public consolidator could play.

“If you’re going to consolidate schemes, which schemes?,” she continued. “There are two main sets of things to think about: One of which is looking at schemes that are least likely to be served by any kind of superfund market. They tend to be schemes that are very small or schemes that have difficulties.

“Or is there an option in which you build a much, much bigger consolidator by taking in much bigger schemes?”

Also speaking on the panel was PPF executive director and general counsel, David Taylor, who said the lifeboat believed that a public consolidator would be a good idea and agreed that the PPF would be an obvious candidate.

“If the government was minded to set up a public sector consolidator, we would be well-placed to take on that role,” he stated.

“From a variety of perspectives, there’s clearly the investment model we already have, the expertise, the infrastructure, and we already have 30 per cent of our assets in productive finance.

“Also, we are an existing consolidator, as everybody would be aware it’s in a different framework, but we have consolidated more than 1,000 schemes. This is all starting to be talked about in a public forum recently. I think we as an organisation have always felt we’ve built up some real expertise here – is there anything more that can be done with it?

“Clearly, we don’t have all the answers, there isn’t a blueprint ready to go, but we think it is worth pursuing and we think there is a place for a public sector option alongside both insurers and commercial consolidators.”

However, not everyone on the panel was so keen on the idea of a public consolidator, with Clara Pensions CEO, Simon True, saying it was “slightly disquieting about potentially having a public consolidator because that could inhibit new capital coming in".

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