Timeline – Steve Webb's first 100 days

May 13 –  While the pensions industry tunes its guitars for the inaugural Pensions Rocks! , the elected member for Thornbury and Yale waits anxiously by the phone . At just after 10pm, Steve Webb receives the call offering him the position of minister of state for pensions within Iain Duncan Smith’s revamped Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). A committed social policy wonk, Webb wastes no time in accepting.

May 27 –  Flanked by new boss Duncan Smith,Webb reveals details of an internal review  of the 2012 pensions reforms. Auto enrolment will be looked at, along with Nest and the Tata administration contract. Though Webb stresses no decisions had already been made, the known critic of Labour’s plans adds: “The scope [of automatic enrolment] could be smaller than it is now.”

June 20  – One of Webb’s legion of recent DWP predecessors,John Hutton, is announced as the chair of a new commission to look at public sector pensions. The brief is to look at the growing disparity of public and private sector provision; the equity of provision across the workforce; how risk can be shared between employees and the taxpayer; and wider government policy to deal with longer working lives.

June 22 –  The new government’s emergency Budget promises further reviews of the pensions industry and moots a simplified version of Labour’s tax relief restriction on pensions .

June 24 –  Webb is by now well into his swing. In one fell swoop  he: announces plans to restore the link between the state pension and earnings from 2011; opens a consultation on raising the state retirement age up to 66 sooner than already planned – with the possibility of linking it to life expectancy; opens a consultation on how quickly the default retirement age should be phased out; and launches a formal review into the auto enrolment reforms.

“Our plans to reinvigorate pension saving will be underpinned by automatic enrolment into workplace pensions from 2012,” he states. “But we need to make sure we get the details right, which is why we’re announcing a thorough and speedy review, to make sure that it pays to save.”

July 8 –  Webb unleashes a bombshell , announcing plans to switch private occupation scheme uprating from the retail price index (RPI) to the consumer price index (CPI). The move is praised in some quarters for giving defined benefit schemes breathing space, but criticised in others for reducing members’ benefits and causing an admin burden.

July 12 –  In an interview withPensions Week ,Webb outlines the reality of departmental cutbacks  which could impact Nest and the Pensions Regulator. “All public bodies, including the regulator, will be facing demands for efficiency and we will be trying to square that circle,” he says.

July 13 –  At an Association of British Insurers conference, Webb defends his recent proposals  to speed up the raising retirement age and to switch from RPI to CPI. He tells delegates: “We need to link the age at which you get the pension to what you get. You may have to wait a bit longer to get it, but it will be worth having when you get it.”

July 15 –  The planned review of compulsory annuitisation  at age 75 is launched.

July 27 –  The consultation on tax restriction on pension contributions is launched.

August 2 –  PW  reveals David Norgrove is to leave regulator at end of 2010 – Webb and Duncan Smith must start recruiting.