My Lords, I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Drake and Lady Sherlock, my noble friend Lord Young and the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, for their valuable contributions to a debate on what I am the first to acknowledge is a significant set of topics. This group of amendments explores how privately operated dashboards will work alongside a public
dashboard provided by the Money and Pensions Service. They also explore whether a public service dashboard will be delivered.
I want first to reassure the Committee that the Government are absolutely committed to the Money and Pensions Service, or MaPS, providing a qualifying dashboard service. Let there be no doubt about that; it was clearly set out in our consultation response Pensions Dashboards: Government Response to the Consultation published in April last year. The MaPS business plan for 2019-20, also published last April, subsequently confirmed its commitment to deliver a dashboard.
Furthermore, to pick up the sense of Amendments 47, 48 and 70, we entirely understand the importance of having a dashboard run by a public body without any commercial interest. One of the core functions of the Money and Pensions Service under the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018 is to provide free and impartial information and guidance about occupational and private pensions. Read together with Clause 122, that ensures that MaPS has the legal powers to provide a pensions dashboard that includes state pension information. To be clear, I say that accessing the information on dashboards will remain free, regardless of whether a dashboard is provided by MaPS or another organisation.
MaPS will be able to include signposting to free and impartial guidance on its dashboard, as will other organisations, as that supports its pensions guidance function. However, MaPS will not be able to host any income-generating advertising. MaPS has no revenue-raising powers under the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018.
I turn to ownership. We expect MaPS to provide a dashboard on an ongoing basis. However, it is important for there to be flexibility in how that function is carried out in line with changing technology and consumer interests. Here I am talking about the medium to long term. We also want to maximise the Government’s ability to ensure that ownership of the dashboard is in the right place in the longer term.
On Amendment 71, I very much share my noble friend Lord Young’s desire for a dashboard to be delivered in a timely manner to help people plan for their retirement. However, setting a date in legislation may be counterproductive. It risks creating a situation where decisions are taken simply to meet a legislative deadline, regardless of outcomes, rather than to meet the needs of individuals. To my mind, more important here is that we ensure that the service is accurate, secure and consumer focused. Developing a service that gives consumers a single point of access to their pensions information is complex. There are 40,000 schemes of differing types, covering around 25 million people with private pension wealth. The staged onboarding of thousands of pension schemes covering millions of separate records will raise issues that are not currently apparent, it is safe to predict. That tells us that dashboards should be delivered only when the Government and MaPS are confident that they are ready, so that consumers can be confident in the service offered. I hope that the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, in particular agrees, given her apposite references to computer systems that perhaps have not quite lived up to expectations.
Through Amendments 37 and 48 the noble Baronesses, Lady Drake and Lady Sherlock, also probe the question of introducing multiple dashboards alongside a MaPS dashboard. Having the potential to offer multiple dashboards at launch maximises the possible reach of this policy from the outset and could help to meet the differing needs of the many people using them. User research completed as part of the Government’s feasibility study and consultation showed that individuals may prefer to use a dashboard provided by an organisation with which they already have a relationship—for example, their employer—due to higher levels of familiarity and trust. It is a case of one step at a time, however.
I hope that the Committee is reassured that the information shown on all dashboards, public or private, will be the same, and based on user testing. We also intend all dashboards to start with a limited functionality until we better understand how individuals interact with their information.
A majority of respondents to the government consultation were supportive of multiple dashboards, provided sufficient consumer protections were in place. The Government have considered how to ensure that consumer protection, and accordingly we shall be introducing a new regulated activity under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to reflect the provision of dashboard services. As I am sure noble Lords are aware, we will cover this issue in more detail later.
Clause 118 provides the power to set out detailed requirements “for qualifying pensions dashboards”. It is also likely that this will be linked to the new regulated activity outlined by the Financial Conduct Authority. These are all provisions to ensure consumer protection in relation to privately run dashboards. Our job is to put that consumer protection regime in place, but, once it is in place, we do not wish to constrain the potential reach of the policy. Nor do we wish unnecessarily to limit consumer choice.
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The noble Baroness, Lady Drake, asked a number of questions. One was whether I could reassure her that pension schemes will not find themselves contravening any GDPR rules when they respond to a request received by the pension finder service. A request of that kind will inevitably be a subject access request from an individual to the data controller to view their data. The individual’s identity will have been verified to the agreed standard, so the pension scheme can be confident about who is making the request. Only the Money and Pensions Service and qualifying pensions dashboard providers that meet the requirements set out in regulations and operate to agreed standards will be able to connect to the dashboard infrastructure. Any request to search for consumers’ pension information that is not received from the pension finder service will not be provided via pensions dashboards.
The noble Baroness also referred to the issues raised by your Lordships’ Constitution Committee about the nature of the skeletal powers in the Bill, and the whole issue of delegated powers. Perhaps I may say, very respectfully, that the noble Baroness was slightly unfair on your Lordships’ committee. As it acknowledged, enacting skeletal provisions was done for a purpose, which
was to provide momentum to the process of co-operation that will be required to develop the dashboard infrastructure. The delegated powers memorandum set out why that approach was taken, and the need to reflect what is a dynamic technical environment.
The noble Baroness, Lady Drake, also asked what steps the Government were taking to ensure that consumers did not fall victim to scammers. I accept the importance of that issue and hope we are sufficiently seized of it. The dashboards will be designed to prevent consumers’ data being unlawfully harvested. Only qualifying dashboard providers and the dashboard provided by the Money and Pensions Service will be permitted to connect to the system and have access to the pension finder service, which is the route for displaying information from pension schemes. We should remember at all times that it will be consumers who have control over who can access information, and that they will be able to revoke their consent at any time. In addition, before guiders and financial advisers can view any pensions information, they will be required to prove their identity, and that they are on the list of registered financial advisers.
The noble Baronesses, Lady Drake and Lady Sherlock, asked about the liability model. We will—I suspect on Monday—come to Amendment 46, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles, and I intend to cover the liability model then, if the Committee will allow.
My noble friend Lord Young and the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, pressed me on when we believe pensions dashboards will actually materialise. I need hardly say that we are keen to see dashboards available as soon as possible, to help consumers plan for their retirement. However, as I have explained, it is important that we ensure that the service designed is accurate, secure and consumer focused. I repeat that this is a very complex business. It is important that we do not rush it and that the design and functionality of the service is right. That is why we have asked the Money and Pensions Service to convene an industry delivery group. That group will lead the design and development of the infrastructure that will support the delivery of dashboards.
I am afraid that all this will take a bit of time. The dates that my noble friend referred to, which apparently still appear on the ABI website, were, in hindsight, somewhat heroic. We have to live with the reality that we find ourselves in, but I can tell my noble friend that MaPS and the industry delivery group intend to set out their approach for the year ahead by Easter. By then, we should have at least the outline of a plan, with milestones I hope, so that we can be a little clearer on the answer to the question that he raised.
The noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, and my noble friend referred to the ABI commentary on the need for a commercial dashboard. The ABI briefing for Committee showed that, in its research, 49% of respondents were comfortable accessing information from pension providers, 47% from online banking, 32% by a mobile app and 20% from a government service. That is quite a revealing set of findings. The first figure that I quoted, 49%, tells a particularly powerful story.
The noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, asked several very simple questions, some of which I have answered. One was about how many commercial dashboards are
currently under development. We do not have an answer to that. There has, however, been significant interest from around the industry, and I can only suppose that we will get greater clarity on that over the coming months. I am sorry that I cannot be more illuminating on that point.
I should just say, as I do not think I have made this clear, that we cannot see any reason why commercial dashboards should not be available at the same time as the publicly owned and funded dashboard, as long as they meet the criteria. It could be that the publicly funded dashboard will be launched first and be first in class, and that others will follow. On the other hand, it could equally be that we will see a range of dashboards emerging at more or less the same time. I am not able to predict which of those will happen, but we are open to both scenarios.
I think that covers the main points. I would like noble Lords to be reassured that, as we move forward with this process, the way that dashboards develop will be kept under regular review by the industry delivery group, the regulators and the Government. User interests are, and will remain, central to the delivery and development of dashboards, and I restate the Government’s commitment that the Money and Pensions Service will provide a dashboard.
I hope that this provides the Committee with the necessary clarity, certainty and—