The Work and Pensions Select Committee has today initiated its inspection of Sir Philip Green's recent deal with The Pensions Regulator on the BHS pension scheme.

The Committee's chair Frank Field addressed a letter to TPR chief executive Lesley Titcomb today asking how the new pensions agreement compares to the average projected benefit members would have received from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

Field set out a number of questions probing the regulator to clarify what different groups of BHS pensioners are expected to receive and whether any member would be receive a better income under the PPF.

"Whether your projections suggest that any scheme members could be financially better served by staying in the existing BHS schemes on PPF-level benefits; for example in taking a trivial communication lump sum for a pot worth more than £18,000 but less than £30,000? If so, what are those circumstances?" Field questioned.

In addition to this, the chair also asked TPR to outline what the £343m has been allocated to, other than to fund the scheme.

"With £20m potentially to be used for other purposes. This includes up to £15m to account for the possibility of fewer than 90 per cent of eligible scheme members choosing to take a winding-up lump sum. What please is the formula determining how much of the £15m will be returned to Sir Philip?" Frank said.

He also questioned what the remaining £5m will be used for and what proportion will be spent on offering scheme members independent financial advice.

While the Committee looks to fully understand the details of the outcome for members Field congratulated TPR "for coming to an out-of-court settlement with Sir Philip Green" over its enforcement action.

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