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937002

registered interest
date	09/07/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Pension Wise
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 25 June (HL8507), how much they spent on the PensionWise service in each year since 2015; which organisations are responsible for the service's delivery; and how they assess the impact and effectiveness of the service.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL9340
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2018 answer text <p>Pension Wise spent £31.7 million in 2015/16, £24.4 million in 2016/17 and £20.6 million in 2017/18. Pension Wise is a service run by the Department, and is funded by a levy on the financial services industry.</p><p> </p><p>Face to face appointments are delivered by Citizens Advice England &amp; Wales (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Citizens Advice Scotland. Telephone appointments are delivered by the Pensions Advisory Service, Citizens Advice Scotland and TelePerformance Ltd.</p><p> </p><p>The Pension Wise website is maintained by the Department.</p><p> </p><p>The Pension Wise service evaluation research conducted by Ipsos MORI, published in October 2017, showed that people who had a Pension Wise appointment, or had used the Pension Wise website, were significantly more likely to answer questions about their pension options correctly. They were also much more likely to have calculated how much income they would need in retirement, shopped around for quotes, and considered how much tax or charges they would pay based on their chosen options.</p><p>Customers and non-users were asked a series of questions to assess their factual knowledge of their pension options. Appointment customers had a knowledge score average of 70 per cent, just fractionally more than website customers who had a knowledge score average of 68 per cent. Both cohorts compare favourably to non users of the service, where the knowledge score average was 47 per cent</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 17/07/2018 12:06:39 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

933754

registered interest
date	02/07/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Pension Wise
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 25 June (HL8507), how many individuals have accessed support from PensionWise (1) online, (2) by telephone, and (3) face-to-face in each year since 2015.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL9140
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/07/2018 answer text <p>Pension Wise has delivered 276,204 appointments and has had 7,233,319 website visits since it was launched in 2015 (data up to and including May 2018). A breakdown by financial year and delivery channel is below:</p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>Total appointments</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Telephone</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Face to Face</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Digital appointments</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Web visits</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>312</p></td><td><p>202</p></td><td><p>110</p></td><td><p>N/A</p></td><td><p>719,357</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>60,907</p></td><td><p>19,950</p></td><td><p>40,957</p></td><td><p>N/A</p></td><td><p>1,725,223</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>66,174</p></td><td><p>17,761</p></td><td><p>48,413</p></td><td><p>N/A</p></td><td><p>2,207,680</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>122,147</p></td><td><p>24,289</p></td><td><p>63,181</p></td><td><p>34,677</p></td><td><p>2,174,550</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>April - May 2018/19</p></td><td><p>26,664</p></td><td><p>5,235</p></td><td><p>13,271</p></td><td><p>8,158</p></td><td><p>406,509</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>276,204</p></td><td><p>67,437</p></td><td><p>165,932</p></td><td><p>42,835</p></td><td><p>7,233,319</p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 10/07/2018 15:48:20 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

772438

registered interest
date	17/10/2017
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Office for Nuclear Regulation: Public Appointments
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government when the Office for Nuclear Regulation expects to appoint a new Chief Nuclear Inspector.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL2131
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/10/2017 answer text <p>The Office for Nuclear Regulation has already begun the process to recruit a new permanent Chief Nuclear Inspector with a view to an appointment being made by late 2017, subject to ministerial approval.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 30/10/2017 12:19:19 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

166087

registered interest
date	25/11/2014
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Workplace Pensions: Fees and Charges
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are measuring the impact of auto-enrolment on fees charged by the investment management industry; and what plans they have to track any changes.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL3145
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The Government’s Command Paper, ‘Better Workplace Pensions: Further measures for savers’, published in March, set out a range of measures including a cap on charges in default fund arrangements, a ban on inappropriate charges and proposals to introduce minimum governance standards and improve transparency across workplace defined contribution schemes.</p><p> </p><p>Following this, Government launched its consultation on draft regulations on governance and charges in occupational pension schemes in October 2014. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the majority of this legislation will come into force from April 2015, alongside Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules in relation to workplace personal pension schemes where appropriate. From April 2015, the Government intends to introduce a charge cap on the default funds of qualifying schemes, set at 0.75 per cent of funds under management and the first phase of enhanced transparency with trustees and Independent Governance Committees (IGCs) being required to report on costs and charges for the first time.</p><p> </p><p>In 2015 Government will consult on regulations under duties in the Pensions Act 2014 requiring information about transaction costs to be disclosed to members and others, and the publication of costs and charges information. The FCA also intends to consult on amending their own rules to introduce equivalent enhanced transparency provisions for workplace personal pension schemes during 2015. The Government has also set out its plans to review the level of the default fund charge cap, to see if it should be lowered, and also whether it should include some or all of the transaction costs that are ultimately borne by members within a cap. This review will take place in 2017.</p><p> </p><p>Taken together the combined effect of these measures on charges, governance and transparency and the Government’s commitment to a review should ensure that savers are being enrolled into workplace schemes that are well run and in members’ interests.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 08/12/2014 12:19:52 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

166089

registered interest
date	25/11/2014
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Workplace Pensions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the basis on which projections of potential returns are used by the investment management industry in communications with pension holders.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL3147
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>Since 6 April 2003, certain money purchase pension arrangements have been required to provide members with Statutory Money Purchase Illustrations (SMPIs). Legislation requires that statutory illustrations are produced in accordance with guidance prepared by a prescribed body approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and by the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland.</p><p>The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is the prescribed body and has been since 6 April 2007. The FRC fulfils its obligations through the publication of Actuarial Standard Technical Memorandum AS TM1: Statutory Money Purchase Illustrations (AS TM1). It reviews AS TM1 regularly and the last completed review was carried out in 2013 following the introduction of the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/2734) which came into force on 6 April 2014. The AS TM1 specifies that the investment return should take into account the current and anticipated future investment strategy of the member’s funds over the period to retirement and be consistent from year to year, with the rationale documented and made available to members on request.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules require a projection at point of sale for contract based pensions. The investment return must reflect the investment potential of the (expected) underlying assets, subject to an overall cap of 5%pa. Flanking projections must be provided using returns which vary by +/- 3%. The FCA has a public commitment to review the basis every 4 years and the next review is due in 2015. The FCA do not require further projections during the lifetime of the contract as pension scheme members will receive statutory statements prepared under DWP legislation. However, where a provider chooses to provide additional projections, they must follow the same basis as point of sale projections.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 08/12/2014 12:26:30 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

47763

registered interest
date	08/04/2014
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the percentage cost over-run established by the management board for any budget in the Department for Work and Pensions to merit being tabled at the departmental management board; and how many times in the last 12 months that has occurred.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL6711
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/04/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>Financial Management information showing the whole financial position of the Department for Work and Pensions in the round is provided to the Departmental Executive Team every month. The Departmental Board also receives this monthly by correspondence and also receives a more detailed update from the Finance Director at the quarterly board meetings.</p><p> </p><p>Any potential breach of Treasury funding control totals would provoke immediate action and does not rely on reporting cycles.</p><p> </p><p>Given the range and complexity of budgets across the Department, we do not have a simple percentage that would trigger an issue being tabled.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 16/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

44561

registered interest
date	24/03/2014
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what customer, user and satisfaction surveys were conducted in the last 12 months in the Department for Work and Pensions and the agencies that report to it; which of them have been reported to the management board in the last 12 months; and which were commissioned by the management board.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL6218
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/03/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The Department for Work and Pensions conducts an annual Claimant Service and Experience Survey which measures customer satisfaction. The survey includes customers of Jobcentre Plus and the former agency Pensions, Disability and Carers Service. Fieldwork for the 2013 survey was completed in September. The survey is approved by the Operations Executive Team and key findings have been reported to them.</p><p> </p><p>The Child Maintenance Group conducts customer satisfaction surveys to cover all its statutory schemes. Quarterly surveys are run for the 1993/2003 and 2012 schemes and a monthly survey for the Options Gateway to tell how customers think suppliers are delivering service. All of these surveys are commissioned and reviewed for internal use by the CMG Executive Team.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 31/03/2014 12:00:00 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

42637

registered interest
date	11/03/2014
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many staff are currently employed for more than 50 per cent of their working week to support the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions in his role as Accounting Officer; and what are their job titles.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL5906
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>In one sense, all DWP staff support the Accounting Officer through their individual responsibilities to work confidently within the system of control for which the Accounting Officer is ultimately responsible, to ensure the effective operation of a major government department, which will make some £136.4 billion in welfare payments this year.</p><p> </p><p>More narrowly, the Accounting Officer is directly supported in his role by his Finance Director General, the 40 Senior Civil Servants that comprise that DG's senior management team; and - in turn – by other colleagues when they handle issues which require explicit Accounting Officer involvement. </p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 19/03/2014 12:00:00 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn