Department for Work and Pensions meaning

In this issue: Cross border criminal investigations Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Insolvency Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Corporate Crime in Scotland Other corporate crime and crime related news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Cross border criminal investigations Companies should act as corporate enforcement develops. In late June 2025, SFO Director Nick Ephgrave met with Matthew Galeotti, head of the criminal division at the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and both reiterated a pledge to work together on prominent transnational investigations. Hayley Lund, partner, and Frankie Cowl, counsel, at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, consider the UK’s shifting corporate enforcement landscape. See News Analysis: Companies must take action as...

In this issue: Pension Schemes Bill The Pensions Regulator Transfers Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Pension Schemes Bill Pensions surplus release plans to be included in Pension Schemes Bill In a statement, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed proposals that would permit defined benefit (DB) pension schemes to distribute a share of their surpluses through the forthcoming Pension Schemes Bill. The purpose is to help sponsoring employers reinvest in their businesses while unlocking extra value for scheme members. With around three-quarters of DB schemes now in surplus and deficit contributions markedly lower (from £16bn in 2010 to under £5bn in 2024), the DWP and pensions minister Torsten Bell emphasised that the reforms will ensure any surplus use is secure, member-centric, and aligned with wider economic ambitions. The precise design of the surplus policy will be detailed in the government’s reply to the Options for Defined Benefit Schemes consultation, which the...

What is the background to the Pension Schemes Bill? The Pension Schemes Bill reached the House of Commons on 5 June 2025, which was hardly unexpected. It had featured in the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament for the new Labour Government in July 2024, and has been referenced on numerous occasions since. As is common with pensions legislation, it was designed to encompass a variety of issues, several of which had been under consideration by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for some years. Accordingly, its eventual arrival was widely anticipated. What are the key measures/provisions in the Bill? The Bill is arranged in five parts. The first part concentrates on defined benefit (DB) schemes and addresses two quite distinct matters: Asset pooling for the Local Government Pension Scheme. Allowing trustees to agree to the return of surplus in a DB scheme to the employer, which, among other things, removes the restrictions under section 251 of the Pensions Act...

A collective defined contribution (CDC) scheme is a type of defined ambition arrangement. What is defined ambition? At its core is the principle of risk sharing, meaning the pension scheme’s risks are not shouldered wholly, or mainly, by either the employer or the members. A defined ambition pension combines aspects seen in traditional defined benefit (DB) schemes with elements typical of traditional defined contribution (DC) schemes. According to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), the purpose of a defined ambition pension is to provide members with greater certainty than a pure DC pension, while aiming for less cost volatility for employers than current DB pensions. In a traditional DB arrangement, the employer typically carries the full burden of risks linked to investment performance, inflation and how long members live. There has been a marked move away from traditional DB owing to factors including economic pressures and the treatment of DB liabilities in company accounts...

This Practice Note outlines examples of employment discrimination judgments based on the protected characteristic of philosophical belief, centring on gender-critical and/or gender identity beliefs. The decisions are arranged in approximate chronological order. For additional detail on the protected characteristic of religious or philosophical belief, see Practice Note: Religion or belief. Forstater v CGD Europe In Forstater, the claimant, a researcher and writer, engaged with the respondents through consultancy agreements. She posted tweets about proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA 2004) that would allow individuals to self-identify their gender. Some members of staff at the respondents raised objections, describing the tweets as transphobic. When her consultancy engagements were not extended, Ms Forstater maintained that this was due to the gender-critical views she had expressed. She brought employment tribunal claims alleging direct discrimination on the basis of a philosophical belief, together with indirect sex discrimination. In 2019, the London Central Employment Tribunal initially concluded that the specific belief that a person’s ‘sex’ is a material reality which...

This Practice Note outlines the remit of the Pensions Regulator (TPR). For details on TPR’s role specifically regarding public sector pension schemes, see the Practice Note in respect of public sector schemes. Background to the role TPR, an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Work and Pensions, is the UK regulator for work-based pension schemes. The office was established on 6 April 2005 by the Pensions Act 2004 (PeA 2004), s 1, replacing the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA), the former pensions regulator. TPR’s remit and powers are, however, considerably wider than those of its predecessor. Under PeA 2004, s 5(3), a ‘work-based pension scheme’ means: an occupational pension scheme a personal pension scheme where there are ‘direct payment arrangements’ for one or more members of the scheme who are employees, or a stakeholder pension scheme For further information on the different types of pension arrangements, see Practice Note: Types of pension arrangements for employees...