Pensions dashboards: Regulator updates guidance on failing to comply with dashboards duties

The Regulator has updated its initial guidance on pensions dashboards to include information on how trustees and scheme managers must demonstrate that they have had regard to the staging timelines. The draft Pensions Dashboards (Amendment) Regulations 2023 will remove the staging timetable from legislation, which will instead be set out in guidance.

All schemes with 100 or more relevant members at the scheme year end between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, must be connected by October 31, 2026.

The compliance section of the Regulator's guidance has now been updated to include additional information on demonstrating compliance. The Regulator expects that trustees and managers should not make final decisions about connecting until they have engaged with the staging timeline guidance and have access to all relevant information, and that any decisions must be clearly considered and documented. The Regulator also states that a failure to have regard to the guidance on staging timelines will be a breach. The Regulator is assessing whether any changes are needed to its draft dashboards compliance and enforcement policy (on which it consulted in November 2022) and will provide an update in due course.