The government will reintroduce the pension schemes bill as part of an “ambitious programme of domestic reform”, the Queen’s Speech confirmed today.
The government’s priorities for the year ahead were set out by the Queen in the state opening of parliament, a week after the Conservatives secured a majority in the general election.
It comes just nine weeks after the last Queen’s Speech which confirmed the bill was set to be laid out in parliament “in the coming weeks”, yet it faced a delay amid the uncertainty surrounding the general election.
Although the Queen did not directly refer to the bill in her speech, the official policy paper confirmed that the measures will be brought forward, though it did not specify when.
The document said the pension schemes bill will “enable people to better plan their saving for later life and improve the protection of people’s pensions”.
Royal London pension specialist Helen Morrissey said: “After months of political wrangling we can finally start making some much-needed progress on key policies such as the pensions dashboard.
“This policy, already much delayed, was put into mothballs when the general election was announced but we hope that the new government with its comfortable majority can now move full speed ahead and we can make some real progress.”
The Conservative win also means the party can implement its pensions manifesto pledges announced at the end of last month, which stated it will hold reviews of the tapered annual allowance and net-pay schemes and raise the National Insurance threshold.