Royal London’s Steve Webb, TPR’s Charles Counsell and RDR architect Sheila Nicholl have all been honoured in the New Year’s honours list.
Webb, who served as pensions minister through the Coalition government of 2010 to 2015, has been knighted for his political and public service, while Counsell, who is executive director of automatic enrolment at TPR has been awarded an OBE for ‘services to workplace pension reform’.
Sheila Nicholl, who was a director at the Financial Services Authority where she led work on the RDR, receives an OBE for services to financial services and voluntary service. Nicholl left the regulator on its transformation into the FCA, joining Schroders.
Counsell says: “I am delighted to receive this award which recognises the commitment and expertise of my colleagues to ensure that automatic enrolment successfully meets the challenge of creating a new and robust culture of saving in the UK.
“Automatic enrolment has reversed a worrying trend of under-saving for retirement amongst workers, and I am proud that we have played a role in educating employers that putting staff into a pension is now the social norm.
“In 2017 will see the largest number of employers so far – more than a million – meet their pension duties and we will act where necessary to ensure compliance remains high.
“We also look forward to taking part in the Government’s review of automatic enrolment which will examine how the policy might be expanded to ensure even more people save for their retirement.”