Date - 7 September 2020
Request
I would like to request a list of the companies that had their employees in the UK contribute to a Defined Benefit Pension Scheme, to assist with my report.
Can you please provide me with this or point me in the right direction?
Response
I can confirm that we hold information falling within scope of your request.
However, we are unable to supply the information requested for the reasons set out below.
Information we are not able to supply
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 information held on our register is information we receive in the exercise of our statutory functions and is considered ‘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 Freedom of Information Act (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 register, extracts from the register or confirm whether a specific pension scheme is listed on the register. This exemption is absolute and does not require a public interest assessment be undertaken.
Duty to provide advice and assistance
You may wish to review our research and analysis webpage which provides detailed analysis of various sections of the pension landscape.