Use of regulatory powers remained steady in most areas with some notable exceptions

The Pensions Regulator has published its latest compliance and enforcement bulletin – showing how many times the regulator used its AE and frontline regulation powers between January and June this year.
The watchdog said the use of powers had remained “broadly steady” since the previous bulletin covering the six-month period of July to December 2021 – with TPR using its powers 203 times during this period as opposed to 244 times in the previous six months.

Despite this, there were some exceptions.

TPR issued 57% more mandatory penalty notices where no chair’s statement had been prepared or the statement did not comply with requirements. The number of these handed out rose from 35 during the second half of last year to 55 in the first half of 2022.

The regulator also substantially upped its usage of powers under section 345 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 requiring the production of specified material – using these powers 19 times in the first half of this year compared to just 10 times in the second half of 2022.

The regulator also said it had used its power to appoint trustees to ensure the number of trustees on a scheme were sufficient less in the most recent period – using these powers 109 times during the first half of the year, compared to 152 times during the last six months of 2022.

Scheme return enforcements for where trustees fail to complete a scheme return when required or do not ensure TPR’s records are maintained with up-to-date registrable information were also down – from seven in the second half of last year to none in the first six months of this year.

TPR also used its formal information gathering powers less – just 11 times from January to June 2022 as opposed to 36 times from July to December last year.

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