FOI reference - FOI-296
Date - 5 August 2024
Request
Please can you provide a list of all defined benefit pension schemes which are subject to the pensions regulator's supervision?
Response
I confirm that we hold the information you have requested, however we are not able to disclose the information.
We are the Regulator for work-based pension schemes with more than one registered member. Any work-based pension scheme registered with HMRC, with more than one member must by law register with us, and this must be done within three months from the date a scheme first becomes a registrable scheme. Therefore, if the scheme you are requesting confirmation about falls into this category (i.e. a work based pension scheme registered with HMRC with more than one member) then it would fall under our remit as The Pensions Regulator.
I should make it clear that confirmation that where a scheme appears on our register this does not imply that we endorse the scheme. We are under a legal duty to register any scheme that notifies us that it meets certain conditions set out in legislation.
Section 44(1)(a) – restricted information under s82 Pensions Act 2004 (PA04)
As TPR has been given strong powers to demand documents and other information from trustees, employers and others, those powers are balanced by restrictions on how we disclose the information provided to us. The type of information you have requested is ‘restricted information’, defined at section 82(4) of the PA04 as:
‘…information obtained by the Regulator in the exercise of its functions which relates to the business or other affairs of any person’.
Under section 82(5) of the PA04 it is a criminal offence to disclose such information except as permitted under that Act.
Whilst the FoIA is based on the presumption of releasing information, section 44(1)(a) of the FoIA provides an absolute exemption to the requirement to disclose any information if its disclosure is prohibited by or under any enactment. In this case, section 82 of the PA04 prohibits disclosure and we are unable to disclose the requested information. This exemption is absolute and does not require a public interest assessment be undertaken.
Duty to provide advice
Please refer to the below links, as they may assist you with your query. They are publicly available on our website.