Parliamentary committee says TPR must act on DC schemes

The report revealed a lack of communication between the regulator and members of defined contribution schemes and called for better distribution of scheme information.

It showed that, while the regulator had information on 99pc of defined benefit schemes, it only details of 32pc of defined contribution schemes.

The committee’s report also revealed fewer than 30pc of schemes have a conflict of interest register; only 66pc have formal structured governance training in place; and only 15pc of all trustees were registered on the regulator’s web-based training toolkit, with the majority failing to complete the modules.

And the report said the regulator must be "alert" to new problems and risks emerging.

Despite this, the committee said the regulator had done a much better job of regulating the pensions industry than its predecessor, the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority.

Committee of Public Accounts chairman Edward Leigh said: "The regulator has made good progress on regulating final salary schemes but far less in the considerably riskier area of money purchase schemes.

"This is especially important given the increasing emphasis on money purchase schemes. The regulator must now target the riskiest of those schemes."

Leigh said the regulator needed to "step in" where schemes were being badly managed to ensure members’ benefits were being protected.

He said: "So far it has appeared reluctant to use its enforcement powers. It must also do more to remedy the widespread lack of understanding of money purchase schemes by members, especially that they bear entirely the risk that the funds accumulated on their behalf might not provide a reasonable pension."