Wednesday 14 January
2026, 09.45, Committee Room 16.
The Work and Pensions Committee will hold a pre-appointment
hearing with the Government's preferred candidate for the chair
of the Pensions Regulator, Emma .
The session provides an opportunity to establish Ms Douglas'
suitability for the role and her priorities in taking up the
role. She is currently Non-Executive Chair of Pensions UK and
Wealth Policy Director for Aviva.
As the independent watchdog of work-based pension schemes in the
UK, the Pensions Regulator funded by the DWP helps schemes
understand their duties and ensures compliance. The Chair helps
to provide it with strategic direction, creates constructive
working relationships within the organisation, ministers and
providers while holding executives to account.
Its importance has been highlighted by a swathe of recent moves,
including the Pension Schemes Bill and the formation of the
Pensions Commission, as well as delivery of the Pensions
Dashboard that is intended to provide a one-stop-shop for
everyone's pension information.
However, the regulator has come under fire by the predecessor
Committee which reported in 2024 that
“two decades of regulatory policy caution [had] almost entirely
destroyed the UK's defined benefit system”. This was after an
earlier report by the Committee found that the Pensions Regulator
had failed to monitor the risk of such investments – which it was
pushing - despite the Bank of England raising the danger back in
2018.
MPs on the Committee could ask the candidate to provide their own
thoughts on the issue and lessons learned from the crisis.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Leverage driven investments are a means to control risk by
making investments that move with liabilities. However, increased
volatility around the ‘mini-budget' of 2022 meant that schemes
could not post additional collateral to rebalance investments
with liabilities fast enough. This was reported on the
predecessor Committee's 2023 report on Defined Benefit Pension
Schemes with Liability Driven Investment.
