Treasury chooses ‘good day to bury bad news’ on pension cold-calling ban delay

Under the terms of the Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018, the government was required either to bring forward its plans for a ban on cold calling by the end of June or explain why it had failed to do so.

In a statement, Glen said that because of the ‘complexity’ of the issue there will now be a further period of consultation on the draft regulations required to implement the ban.

These would then be debated in Parliament in the Autumn, but Royal London has argued that it now "seems unlikely that the ban would come into force until 2019 at the earliest".

Royal London has accused the Treasury of 'sneaking out' the written statement amidst the publication of the Brexit white paper and the visit of the US President.

Steve Webb, director of policy at Royal London, said: “The Treasury has chosen a good day to bury bad news. Whilst everyone’s eyes were focused on the Brexit white paper and the visit of the US president, they decided to admit officially that the cold-calling ban is going to be further delayed.

"Nobody doubts that if this issue was a real priority for the government a ban would already be in place right now. The repeated delays mean yet more innocent people will be scammed out of their life savings by crooks who ring them up out of the blue with persuasive offers and pressure sales techniques. It is understandable that the government is embarrassed by this delay, but now they need to pull out all the stops to get this legislation through and in force.”