Pensions Minister, Emma Reynolds, has confirmed that the initial findings from the government’s pensions investment review will be shared in an interim report in 'autumn' this year, with auto-enrolment reforms to be looked at as part of the second phase of the review.

Speaking at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), Reynolds confirmed that the government is currently working through responses to its recent pension investment review call for evidence, with over 200 industry responses received.

Providing some initial insight into the industry responses, Reynolds suggested that there is “a lot of goodwill in the industry to improve things”.

“I am picking up an appetite to work with the government to reform the way that things are working to improve safer outcomes and to seriously consider how we can boost investment into the UK,” she said.

“We're working through these responses now and we'll publish the entering findings of phase one this autumn with the final recommendations next year,” she confirmed.

Speaking to Pensions Age, Reynolds confirmed that further work will be needed after this, explaining that there “may well be some consultations” launched of the back of the review, which would enable the government to include additional legislation in the Pension Schemes Bill, as this won’t be until “spring, early summer” 2025.

"That's the sort of timetable," she said, "so it does allow us to add to the pension schemes bill, and that was always the plan," she said, clarifying however that "not everything is legislative”.

Some areas may not be addressed as soon as hoped for in the industry, however, as, despite growing calls to reform auto-enrolment, Reynolds confirmed that this is an issue that will be addressed as part of phase 2 of the review.

"Separate from phase one will be a wider phase two, which will look more widely at further long-term steps we can take to improve pension outcomes, including the level of savings people need,” she said.

"We all know of the transformative effect of automatic enrolment... but over 5 million employees are still not saving into a workplace pension.

"That's why I'm looking closely at future implementation of the 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review from the last government that recommended expanding aid to younger workers and removing the lower earnings limit."

“I know there's a lot of interest in phase 2,” she added, reassuring the industry that it “won’t have too long to wait”.

“And you'll have ample opportunity to contribute,” she continued. “It is crucial that we make it easier for people to keep track of their pension savings and plan for retirement.”

However, Reynolds warned that there are “trade-offs” here, between protecting people's financial resilience today and supporting their pension savings for tomorrow.

"I can't announce anything today unfortunately, but I certainly think we do need to look at contribution levels," she said. "We need to look at AE, and we need to look at some of the groups that have traditionally been under provided for, whether that's women or some ethnic minority groups, or indeed the self-employed."

Speaking to Pensions Age, Reynolds again stressed that while automatic enrolment has been "incredibly successful", the government does need to take stock of where the savings gaps are.

"Phase two of the pensions review, which we will be launching later in the year, will be looking for precisely that," she confirmed.

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