We had been assured by Bryn Davies that it would happen but when it did , it was a relief. Steve Webb (who knows his way around getting pension bills enacted) brought it to my attention last night.

Very good news tonight. The Pension Schemes Bill has completed its journey through Parliament. Time to celebrate before the really important work begins – implementing the huge reforms it contains to deliver better pensions for savers https://t.co/3ZsSMaAbKV

— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) April 28, 2026

We have Royal Assent to come later  in the Kings Speech. It will announce we have new legislation that will make a difference. That difference will be meaningful to you and me.

Phil Brown is right as his piece in Professional Pensions makes clear.

We will remember the impact of this Bill and what followed, not what has happened over Mandation.  That  will be sidelined as it should have been. It never was what this Bill set out to do and now has done!

This is what Phil Brown says

The Bill is intentionally enabling. Its ambition on scale, consolidation, value for money and retirement outcomes depends on regulations still to be written and implemented. For schemes, providers and advisers, the challenge will be keeping pace with what follows.

The timetable for delivery of the DC and DB measures in the Bill , stretch into the next decade and many will not be fully implemented during this parliament.

There are many opportunities for the main thrust of the bill to fall victim to lobbying. Thank fully we have an alternative in workplace CDC pension which cannot be wrecked, for they have  secondary legislation completed (thanks to the DWP).

Another stream of legislation  for CDC

There is a separate timetable for CDC , Royal Mail’s version is complete, the multi-employer workplace pension (to match DC master trusts) will have its code in place by the end of July while we are promised legislation to consider for retirement CDC by the end of this year.

CDC is already here for employers to consider as an upgrade to the DC master trust and to the ordinary people I was talking to yesterday afternoon it could not come quick enough.

As the Pension PlayPen discussed yesterday morning, the biggest changes to the delivery of workplace pensions are happening outside the perimeter of the Pension Schemes Bill.  Action from employers will start way before the completion of the secondary legislation on DC has been completed. The option to convert a DC pot to CDC pension at retirement will not be available till later still!

But let’s see the bigger picture; we are moving forward with DC and DB as promised !

The two streams aren’t quite in sequence, but let that be. The priorities that Pensions UK have are laid out by Phil Brown below

The first wave is expected to focus on defined contribution (DC) scale and consolidation. Regulations will need to define what counts towards the £25bn ‘main scale default arrangement’ and how connected defaults can be aggregated. Parallel Financial Conduct Authority rule‑making for contract‑based schemes adds complexity for providers operating across both regimes.

Alongside this, the government is expected to consult on regulations underpinning the new Value for Money (VfM) framework for trust‑based DC schemes. The key issue is not the metrics but the consequences of underperformance: how assessments are scored and published, and how and when The Pensions Regulator (TPR) can intervene, including forcing consolidation or closure.

Further consultations will follow on contractual override, small pots consolidation, defined benefit (DB) surplus extraction, a permanent statutory framework for DB superfunds, and new duties around DC decumulation and guided retirement. Collectively, this is one of the most intensive periods of pension reform in decades.

Getting the order wrong could blunt the intended impact of the reform package. Reforms should be phased so that the foundations come first: clarify the end‑state for the VfM framework (including the consequences of underperformance) and the definition of scale, then allow schemes and providers time to respond through orderly consolidation and investment strategy changes.

Only once scale and VfM are bedded in should the system move at pace on reforms that are operationally complex or heavily member‑facing, such as small pots consolidation and the new decumulation and guided retirement duties.

Finally, measures affecting DB schemes – including a permanent superfund regime and any changes to surplus extraction – should follow with appropriate safeguards, informed by the market and regulatory capacity that will be built through earlier stages.

All this is of massive consequence to the pensions industry but not necessarily in this order. I suspect that the most important to ordinary people will be the new decumulation and guided retirement duties. These appear to be less important than issues to do with scale and VFM which have little consequence to those wanting pensions!

Nausicaa Delfas said of DC that it was “unfinished” and it would be good to see decumulation becoming part of what DC does! Right now, it is a promise of a pension that is not being met by the pensions industry.

We will have, during the move towards “guided retirement“, a pensions dashboard indicating the kind of income that people will get if they do nothing but there are huge differences between the level annuity at retirement that the dashboard will convert the pot to and the vision for a default retirement income that I hear talked about by DC providers.

It should be remembered that one of the most contentious discussions over pensions is the level of increases in the State Pension! We are a long way from where we will end up with pensions from DC pots!

I hope that Torsten doesn’t let “financial services” kick DC pensions into the long grass. Ordinary people want their savings to  pay real income for the rest of their lives. The savings industry may still wreck this idea ; Government must be watch full!