Q&A about what we do

What is The Pensions Regulator and what does it do?

The Pensions Regulator is the regulator of UK work-based pensions.
It was established under the Pensions Act 2004 and came into force on 6 April 2005, superceding the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA).
The statutory objectives of the regulator are:
- to protect the benefits of members of work-based pension schemes
- to promote good administration of work-based pension schemes
- to reduce the risk of situations arising that may lead to claims for compensation from the Pension Protection Fund.
The regulator is a non-departmental public body, accountable to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

The Pensions Regulator is a risk-based regulator. This means that we monitor the pensions market and the activity of schemes to help us identify the situations which pose the most significant risk to members. We apply our resources to those situations, acting to put appropriate mitigation in place.
We gather information through the scheme return process, submission of funding plans, the media and gathering of market intelligence.
Key to achieving our objectives is educating those who manage and deliver pension schemes about the legal requirements they need to adhere to and what good practice looks like.
We provide support and guidance for trustees, professional pensions advisers and employers, on key areas like scheme funding, member communications, conflicts of interest and internal controls.
This guidance is delivered through our codes of practice, guidance documents, statements and reports, the Trustee toolkit on our website and our customer support team.
Whilst we aim to achieve our objectives through education and support, we do have powers we can use to make sure that members do not suffer due to poor management or even mismanagement of a scheme.

The regulator has powers to find out information about a scheme; to step in to resolve or manage problems within a scheme; and to act if an employer is intentionally trying to avoid paying its pension liabilities.
Our focus is first and foremost on educating and enabling those who design, manage and deliver pensions, helping them to carry out their role to the highest possible standards. However we will and do use our powers when absolutely necessary.
Some examples of our powers include:
- Issue an improvement notice to individuals or companies, or a third party notice, requiring specific action to be taken within a certain time.
- Taking action, on behalf of a scheme, to recover unpaid contributions from the employer if the due date for payment has passed.
- Prohibiting trustees who are judged not fit and proper to carry out their duties or appointing independent trustees;
- Directing pension schemes as to how to calculate their liabilities and the contributions required;
- Issuing a contribution notice where there is an attempt to avoid liabilities, or a financial support direction where the employer is a service company or insufficiently resourced.

The Pensions Regulator is funded through grant-in-aid from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Running costs are recovered through a general levy on pension schemes.
The work relating to pensions reform, and the setup cost of the Employer Compliance Regime are met by the DWP.

The regulator published codes of practice and guidance documents to help trustees, employers and others involved in running pension schemes to understand what they need to do to comply with the requirements of pensions law and to promote good practice.
Codes of practice give practical guidance on how to comply with pensions law. They are not statements of the law, but they do refer to requirements of the law that must be met. Whilst trustees do not have to follow a code of practice, they may incur penalties should they fail to meet the legal requirements.
Codes of practice have evidential value. This means that when determining whether a legal requirement was met, a court or tribunal will take the relevant code of practice into account.
Our guidance documents are slightly different to codes of practice. They are designed to offer practical guidance on what we consider to be good practice in pension scheme management.

All schemes have to register with the regulator within 3 months of registering with HM Revenue and customs (HMRC).
You should register your scheme through the Exchange system.

The scheme return is an important information-gathering procedure.
It is designed to provide us with the detailed information we need to understand the schemes we regulate and to identify risks and emerging trends in the pensions industry.
The scheme return requests basic information about the scheme, including type, trustees, membership, advisers, employer and funding.
It must be completed by the scheme’s trustees and returned to The Pensions Regulator.
Trustees will be expected to complete the return at least once every three years, but many schemes will need to complete a scheme return every year.

As part of ongoing reform of UK pensions, from 2012 onwards employers in the UK will be required by law to automatically enrol their employees into a qualifying pension scheme.
The aim of pensions reform as a whole (automatic enrolment) is to increase the number of people saving for their retirement.
In light of the reforms, the regulator was given a new objective - to maximise employer compliance with their new duties.
Once employers have enrolled their staff into a qualifying scheme they will need to register with us so we are able to ensure that all employers are indeed complying.
There is more information about workplace pensions reform on the DWP website.
You can find out more about the reforms in the pensions reform section of our website.