On the go: The chair of the Money and Pensions Service has declined to give a launch date for the public pensions dashboard, since there are too many variables to be considered at this time.
At a hearing at parliament prior to the Work and Pensions select committee on Wednesday, Hector Sants said: “It is not realistic for me to set up a date.”
He argued that in order to give a deadline for the project, Maps needs to determine the technical solution that will be used, among other factors.
“We have made a decision that given the speed of change in the technology sector, it would be appropriate to make a best appraisal of the options in that space, which we can make in the coming months,” Sir Hector said.
“Once we know what the technical solution is, we will need to engage with the government procurement rules – and the rules vary considerably – and in certain circumstances [these procedures] run for a number of years.”
He also noted that the Department for Work and Pension has signalled that it might take a number of years to get the state pension data ready for the dashboard.
Chris Curry, principal of the Pensions Dashboard Industry Delivery Group at Maps, added there are a number of other issues that the guidance body is looking at.
“Digital identity is an important one, the safety and security of anybody using the dashboard is paramount in what we are doing here,” Mr Curry said. “The [government’s] digital identity service is undergoing a review at the moment – we are waiting a response to the consultation.
“There are a number of different features the availability of a public dashboard is heavily dependent upon, and it would be very premature of us to put a target date out there, which might drive or change the focus on to the date than actually delivering the right service, which is what we are focused on.”
Sir Hector promised to deliver a first report on the progress of the project in April, in which a timeline for the pensions dashboard will be set.
DWP confirmed in December 2018 that it would seek to foster the creation of multiple pensions dashboards, with the first one developed by Maps.
In February, the guidance body announced that it has commissioned qualitative research to understand the challenges pension schemes face with providing data for the project.
