FOI reference - FOI-267
Date - 5 June 2024
Request
I have noticed on your recent data on Occupational defined benefit (DB) landscape in the UK 2023 that the number of open DB schemes has fallen to 199 and has continued to fall each year.
Would it be possible to get the names of these schemes?
Response
As we have been given strong powers to demand documents and other information from trustees, employers and others, those powers are also balanced by restrictions on how we disclose the information provided to us. The type of information you have requested would be ‘restricted information’. Restricted information is defined at section 82(4) of the Pensions Act 2004 (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 further assistance
You can reach out to https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pensions-basics/workplace-pensions and/or https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/PensionsChat to find out if they hold the information you are seeking.