Investigations initiated between 2018 and 2026
FOI reference - FOI-487
Date - 16 July 2026
Request
Please provide the following information related to investigations.
- The number of investigations initiated in each year from 2018 to 2026 (inclusive, to date). Please note this refers only to the initiation of an investigation, which I am aware can go over multiple years.
- The number of times the power to compel witnesses or suspects to be interviewed was exercised, in each year as above. If possible within the FOIA restrictions, please divide this between suspect, witness, or other participant.
Response
I confirm that we hold the information you have requested.
For both questions, we have supplied two sets of numbers. One for investigations relating to Employers regulated under Automatic Enrolment (AE) and the other for Pension Schemes.
1. Investigations
Table 1: Automatic enrolment
| Year | Number of investigations initiated |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 176,096 |
| 2019 | 112,506 |
| 2020 | 106,443 |
| 2021 | 136,990 |
| 2022 | 130,819 |
| 2023 | 146,768 |
| 2024 | 166,557 |
| 2025 | 132,411 |
| 2026 (at time of request) | 54,593 |
| Total | 1,163,183 |
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has a number of interventions available to us when ensuring employer compliance with AE. The statistics for AE contains both bulk and manual enforcement cases. Further information on how we regulate AE can be found on our website: Automatic enrolment compliance and enforcement
Table 2: Pension schemes
| Year | Number of investigations initiated (Note 1) |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 6 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 4 |
| 2021 | 5 |
| 2022 | 7 |
| 2023 | 6 |
| 2024 | 8 |
| 2025 | 5 |
| 2026 (at time of request) | 0 |
| Total | 52 |
Note 1: These figures are for formal pension scheme enforcement investigations and do not include cases and enquiries we conduct in other regulatory work, such as Scheme Supervision or Intelligence
gathering.
We only investigate Pension Schemes when it is reasonable, appropriate and proportionate, and continually assess a case to make sure we’re taking the right course of action. Generally, we expect to engage with a scheme, trustee, employer or any other person(s) potentially facing enforcement action to set out our concerns before we start a formal investigation. Our aim in most cases is to resolve or mitigate any risks without the need for enforcement action, but where this is not achieved we may open an investigation. Further information on how we investigate Pension Schemes can be found on our website: Our approach to investigations
2. Power to compel to be interviewed
Table 3: Employers
| Year | Number of times the power to compel witnesses or suspects to be interviewed. |
Divide between suspect, witness, or other participant |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 0 | N/A |
| 2019 | 0 | N/A |
| 2020 | 0 | N/A |
| 2021 | 0 | N/A |
| 2022 | 0 | N/A |
| 2023 | 0 | N/A |
| 2024 | 1 | 1 suspect |
| 2025 | 2 | 2 suspects |
| 2026 (at time of request) | 0 | N/A |
| Total | 3 | 3 suspects |
Table 4: Pension schemes
| Year | Number of times the power to compel witnesses or suspects to be interviewed. | Divide between suspect, witness, or other participant |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 0 | N/A |
| 2019 | 0 | N/A |
| 2020 | 0 | N/A |
| 2021 | 0 | N/A |
| 2022 | 1 | 1 witness |
| 2023 | 0 | N/A |
| 2024 | 3 | 1 potential target (Note 2) and 2 witnesses |
| 2025 | 7 | 4 potential targets (Note 2), 2 witnesses and 1 other |
| 2026 (at time of request) | 0 | N/A |
| Total | 11 | 5 potential targets (Note 2), 5 witnesses and 1 other |
Note 2: These were regulatory cases, not criminal cases, so we consider them targets rather than suspects.
TPR's power to compel attendance at an interview was extended by the Pension Schemes Act 2021 (the power had previously been limited to automatic enrolment and master trust cases). This extension became operational on 1 October 2021. The power as extended allows TPR to require individuals to attend interviews for the purposes of exercising its statutory functions and forms part of a broader strengthening of TPR's information-gathering and enforcement powers.