In the newly created role, the former Liberal Democrat politician – who lost his ministerial position to Ros Altmann following the Conservatives majority victory in this year’s General Election – will be responsible for developing policy on issues such as long-term savings & protection and financial capability.
On his role, which also includes overseeing public relations and public affairs activity, Webb said: “Having been involved in designing policy in areas such as automatic enrolment I am looking forward to seeing how it is implemented on the front line.”
Webb will begin his role on 9 November and will not be allowed to partake in any direct lobbying activity for the first two years of his appointment as a result lobbying rules.
Focus: Steve Webb
Webb was a member of parliament for Northavon, UK from 1997 until 2010 and for Thornbury & Yate from 2010 until 2015.
He first won his seat for Northavon following the 1997 general election, overturning a conservative majority of more than 11000. He increased a 2137 majority to 9877 in the 2001 election and to 11033 in the 2005 election.
He was minister of state for pensions in the coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats under prime minister David Cameron.
As pension minister, he led major changes to the pensions system, which saw the requirement for annuity removed to allow fully flexible access to pension pots. Announced by chancellor George Osborne in the 2014 Budget, the changes were introduced in April 2015.
He also spearheaded the introduction of auto-enrolment pension schemes for large businesses in the UK. Auto-enrolment automatically enrols employees into a contributory pension scheme, unless they opt out.
As well as losing his ministerial position to Ros Altmann in the May 2015, general election, he also lost his constituent seat to conservative Luke Hall.
