UK Chancellor Philip Hammond's Autumn Statement made it Government policy to ban firms from cold-calling consumers to ask them to cash in their pensions and make alternative investments. This idea has now been shelved.

The Financial Guidance and Claims Bill is a government-sponsored bill introduced in the House of Lords on 22 June 2017. It is has now had its second reading, during which a representative of the Department of Work and Pensions, Baroness Buscombe, told their Lordships that the Government was not going to include the long-expected ban in the Bill. Instead, it will consult interested parties about all manner of pension-related sharp practice 'shortly.'

The Bill's aims are to merge three existing government-sponsored financial and pension guidance services (the Money Advice Service, the Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise) and to change the way claims management companies are regulated to counter malpractice. Around the time of the Queen's Speech last month, the Cabinet Office first expressed the Government's desire to turn the job over to the Financial Conduct Authority, the better to counter “nuisance calls and the encouragement of fraudulent claims”.

Another related Government policy, to quash “exaggerated and fraudulent whiplash claims,” is to appear in an as-yet unpublished Civil Liability Bill.

Kate Smith, the head of pensions at Aegon, told Compliance Matters: “It is hugely disappointing to see the Government shy away from tackling an issue that has a disproportional impact on the most vulnerable in society. There is a certain irony too that this has been revealed during National Scams Awareness Month.

“Scammers are becoming more sophisticated and always finding new ways to target people's money, but tackling the prevalence of cold-calling is a simple step that could stamp out a lot of scammers’ underhanded tactics. With such widespread support for a cold calling ban it’s a shame it is not featured in the bill. The industry must continue to put pressure on the government to ensure that legislation is brought back to the House in good time and not simply kicked into the long grass.”