The Pensions Regulator

Pensions Regulator publishes report and accounts 2006/2007

Ref: PN07-12
24 July 2007

The Pensions Regulator today (Tuesday) published its annual report and accounts for the financial year 2006/2007, its second full year of operation.

The report highlights a number of notable achievements over the year including:

• good progress made on DB scheme funding and continued strong performance of the corporate risk management team;
• establishment of the scheme specific funding practice and issuing of statements and guidance;
• successful delivery of all planned Trustee toolkit modules against a background of rapidly increasing take-up;
• production of all the codes of practice required by legislation, which have been well-received;
• consultation on risks to members of DC schemes;
• developing and issuing an industry-wide discussion paper on scheme governance;
• achieving a high completion rate for scheme return data; and
• maintenance of good working relationships with PPF and FSA.

Commenting on performance throughout the year, the Pensions Regulator's chief executive Tony Hobman said: "By the end of this, our second full year of operation, I believe that we have succeeded in positioning ourselves as a credible, professional, pragmatic and approachable risk-based regulator.

"Our challenge for the coming year is to maximise the leverage from this excellent start to continue to drive positive behaviours in support of pension scheme members' best interests and to punch our weight in the wider pensions arena."

The Pensions Regulator's chairman David Norgrove concluded: "The focus of this last year has been addressing challenges. The clearance function has continued and developed, we set out our position and approach on scheme funding, and we took an important step in marking out our role as regulator of DC schemes as well as DB. Overall, I believe the past year has seen real progress on all of our stated priorities."

Other key facts and figures for the 2006/2007 period include:

• scheme database shows 91% of memberships in just 1,858 schemes, with 22.2 million members of DB schemes and 4.2 million members of DC schemes (as at March 2007);
• 149 clearance applications granted, 1 application refused, 26 applications withdrawn, 874 clearance enquiries received;
• 46 independent trustee appointments, 506 individual member or third-party appointments;
• 8,600 scheme returns sent to DB schemes;
• 640 notifiable events received;
• 1,233 whistleblower breach of law reports received; and
• 52,745 enquiries received by the regulator's customer support centre.

Editor's notes

The Pensions Regulator is the regulator of work-based pensions in the UK, with wide-ranging and flexible powers under the Pensions Act 2004. Its powers include the ability to:

• collect detailed scheme information;
• issue improvement notices and third party notices, enabling the regulator to ensure problems are put right;
• freeze a scheme that is at risk, while the regulator investigates, prior to wind-up;
• prohibit trustees who are judged not fit and proper to carry out their duties; and
• issue a contribution notice or financial support direction.

The Pensions Act 2004 also imposes a statutory obligation on 'whistleblowers' to report to us suspected breaches of the legislation.