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Public Sector Pensions Quarterly update – December 2025

11 Dec 2025 4 min read
Big Ben And Westminster Parliament With Colorful Sky And Water

Welcome to Public Sector Pensions Quarterly, our newsletter dedicated to news and developments in the world of public sector pensions law.

Since our last edition there have been a number of significant legal developments. The Pension Schemes Bill continues its passage through Parliament, and an amended version was published on 5 December, as the Bill progressed to consideration in the House of Lords. In addition, the Government is currently consulting on a further series of changes to the LGPS, including implementation of New Fair Deal, and, published on Friday 22 November, draft regulations designed to implement some of the pooling, investment and governance changes set out in the government response to the Fit for the Future consultation (look out for more from us on this in the coming weeks).

This final edition of 2025 includes items on these reforms and the recent budget, as well as an important update on the Virgin Media judgment and s37 confirmations, recent cyber and data protection developments, an update from HMRC on unwinding tax-free cash withdrawals when members change their minds and our regular “case of the quarter” feature.

Wishing you all the very best for the festive season.

Policy update

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Section 37 remedy

Following on from the Government’s June announcement that it would introduce legislation “to give affected pension schemes the ability to retrospectively obtain written actuarial confirmation that historic benefit changes met the necessary standards”, amendments have now been made to the Pension Schemes Bill to include these draft s37 remedy provisions.

The remedy is there to assist schemes with historic amendments where evidence of s37 compliance is incomplete. As we’ve written previously, there is good reason to conclude that the requirement for actuarial confirmation under s37 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 to be given for certain benefit changes applied to public service pension schemes. The remedy provisions will therefore be important for public service pension schemes as well as those in the private sector.

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There have been a couple of further recent developments. In October, the Financial Reporting Council issued a statement advising that it is working with industry professionals, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the Association of Consulting Actuaries to develop technical guidance to support scheme actuaries who are asked by affected pension schemes to apply the remedy. The statement advises that the guidance will be available “when the expected legislation comes into force”.

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And the revised version of the Bill published on 5 December includes amendments to the draft remedy provisions, including a new sub-clause clarifying how the provisions work for public service pension schemes. We’ll publish an update on these changes in the coming weeks.

Budget 2025

The Chancellor’s budget on 26 November 2025 included a number of important changes for pension schemes. Richard Knight and Louise Pettit summarise the headline reforms affecting pension schemes, including an important change for the LGPS in relation to SDLT.

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Local Government Pension Scheme round-up

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Focus on governance

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Data protection

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Case of the Quarter

This edition’s case of the quarter is a recent decision of the Pensions Ombudsman relating to a negligent misstatement by the administrators of the Teachers Pension Scheme. Pensions disputes specialist Caius Mills sets out key findings from the Ombudsman and considers the implications for the status of disclaimer wording in member benefit statements.

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Team news

It’s another very exciting month of growth for us as we are delighted to welcome five new lawyers to the team, two of whom are public sector pensions specialists.

Partner Gary Delderfield is a nationally recognised leader in public sector pensions law and joins us together with senior associate Alec Bennett to bring additional strength in depth to our public sector pensions practice.

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We are also very pleased to welcome senior associate Georgie Wardrop to our London-based team, and Jaimie Buchanan (PSL) and Megan Bruce (solicitor) to our Scottish office.

And last but not least, we were delighted to win the award for Impact on Climate at the Pension Management Institute’s recent PMI Pinnacle Awards. The award is recognition for our leadership in driving meaningful climate action – both within our own firm and across the pensions industry.

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