Request for a skilled persons report
FOI reference - FOI-460
Date - 6 March 2026
Request
- A copy of the skilled person's report obtained by NOW: Pension Trustee Limited pursuant to the section 71(1) notice issued by the Determinations Panel on or around 8 March 2017, including all appendices and supporting materials submitted to TPR.
- Any summary, précis or covering note prepared by TPR in connection with receipt or review of that report.
- Any correspondence between TPR and the skilled person (or their firm) relating to the scope, methodology or findings of the report, to the extent not covered by legal professional privilege.
- Any TPR internal assessment of the quantum of member detriment identified in or arising from the report.
Response
I confirm that we hold the information you have requested. However, the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure.
Whilst the FoIA is based on the presumption of releasing information, section 44(1)(a) of the FoIA (footnote 1) 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 Pensions Act 2004 (PA04) (footnote 2) prohibits disclosure and we are unable to disclose this sort of information. This exemption is absolute and does not require a public interest assessment be undertaken.
Section 44(1)(a) – restricted information under s82 PA04
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 PA04 (footnote 3) 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.
As the information requested, is restricted information and because its disclosure is prohibited by another enactment (PA04) it is therefore exempt from disclosure under section 44(1)(a) of the FoIA.