UK Pensions: What's new this week? 30 June, 2025

Data (Use and Access) Act get royal assent

The Data (Use and Access) Act (DUA Act), which makes amendments to the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018, has received Royal Assent. Changes of interest to pension schemes are set out below. Except in one case (noted below), regulations are needed before these changes come into force.

• Clarification of the existing "legitimate interests" basis for processing data, to include additional examples such as "intragroup transmission of personal data for internal administration purposes" and "processing necessary for ensuring the security of network and information systems".
• New detail on when data can be processed for a purpose other than that for which it was originally collected.
• New powers to require data holders to provide customer data on request. While this is not targeted at pension schemes, there may be scenarios where it does cover services provided to members. We will need to wait for draft regulations setting out the details to assess whether there is any impact.
• Changes to (including possibly expanding) restrictions on processing special category data. Again, we will need draft regulations to be able to assess whether any data processed by schemes will be affected.
• In relation to data subject access requests: (a) more flexibility on the timescales for responding to a request; and (b) codifying that organisations only need to conduct reasonable and proportionate searches when responding to requests (this change comes into force immediately).
• Requirements for controllers to help people with data protection complaints, including acknowledging complaints within 30 days and responding "without undue delay".

In related news, the European Commission (EC) has extended its adequacy decisions with the United Kingdom (which state that the UK has an adequate level of protection for personal data to allow the free flow of data to the EU) until December 27, 2025. This gives time for the EC to assess whether the new legal framework under the DUA Act continues to meet this threshold and whether to renew the UK adequacy decisions for the longer term.

Read the Act, read the ICO’s guidance and read more here. 

ESG consultations

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has launched a consultation on "Climate-related transition plan requirements". The government previously announced that it would require UK-regulated financial institutions (including pension schemes) and FTSE 100 companies to develop and implement credible transition plans aligning with the Paris Agreement. It is now consulting on how to implement that, seeking views on the benefits and use cases of transition plans and on the implementation of transition plan requirements and related policy and frameworks.

What might transition planning mean for pension schemes?

For corporates, a transition plan is a roadmap for aligning operations, strategies and business models with sustainability goals. For pension schemes, information from those transition plans can be critical in understanding the transition risks and physical risks for their investment portfolios, and integrating financially material risks and opportunities into investment decision-making.

In terms of direct climate change and sustainability requirements for pension schemes, the DWP will review current climate change reporting requirements this year, and has asked the Pensions Regulator (TPR) to assess the practicalities of transition plan requirements for pension schemes. TPR has previously suggested that pension schemes should look to the work of the Transition Plan Taskforce for best practice in their own transition planning.

The specific consultation questions relating to pension schemes are:

• How do you think any new transition plan requirements should integrate with the existing requirements in UK law for some larger schemes to produce Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reports and to calculate the portfolio alignment metric?
• To what extent does your scheme already produce transition plans? What are their intended purposes, what information do they draw on, and what challenges have you encountered in developing them?

The consultation also seeks views on a range of other matters, including how to ensure that companies, pension schemes and financial institutions align their transition plans with net zero by 2050.

Alongside this, the government is consulting on exposure drafts of the UK sustainability reporting standards (SRS), relating to the disclosure of information about an entity’s transition plans. The DWP will consider the role of UK SRS in pension scheme reporting as part of its review later this year. Also published is a separate consultation on "Assurance of sustainability reporting" which proposes a registration regime for entities that offer third-party assurance services for sustainability-related disclosures. The consultations close on September 17, 2025.

Read the Transition plan requirements consultation.