Biwater pension scheme

FOI reference - FOI - 411

Date - 19 September 2025

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Request

1. In a statement provided to Pensions Expert, the Pensions Regulator (TPR) said it had been in “regular contact” with the trustees. How long has TPR been in contact with the trustees about the situation at Biwater?
2. What actions did TPR take to support the trustees in obtaining employer contributions from Biwater? In particular, I am exploring the period since 30 June 2019 up until the liquidation order was issued in July 2025.
3. The BRASS trustees attempted to have Biwater wound up in July 2023. What was TPR’s involvement in this process?
4. What was TPR’s involvement in the winding up of BRASS in December 2024?
5. What was TPR’s involvement in run up to the liquidation hearing in July 2025?
6. What enforcement action did TPR take against Biwater or its directors to support the trustees in getting the correct contributions from the sponsor?
7. What powers does TPR have in general regarding enforcing employer contributions to defined benefit schemes?
8. Since 2020, has TPR contacted Biwater or its directors to highlight debts owed to the scheme, or otherwise encourage the payment of missing contributions? Please provide copies of any correspondence between TPR and Biwater or its directors relating to the funding of the pension scheme.
9. Is TPR of the view that the trustees’ investment strategy was appropriate for an underfunded defined benefit scheme with a weak covenant?

Response

The majority of the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure. I respond to the numbered paragraphs within your request as follows:

1. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request. Please see exemptions section below. 
2. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request. Please see exemptions section below 
3. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request. Please see exemptions section below. 
4. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request. Please see exemptions section below. 
5. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request. Please see exemptions section below.
6. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request. Please see exemptions section below.
7. When an employer fails to pay contributions to defined benefit schemes, we expect trustees to take appropriate action to protect the scheme and members’ benefits.

In the event that the trustee is unable to resolve the matter, we expect them to take the steps as set out in the following link: contributions

When TPR receives reports of late contributions, we review the reports on a case-by-case basis, in order to determine an appropriate course of action.

TPR has a range of powers available to us, which can broadly be divided into regulatory, penalty, civil and criminal powers.

When assessing use of powers, TPR has a series of considerations we must review before we can take enforcement action, this includes assessing the position of the scheme, the risk to members’ benefits and the circumstances of the sponsoring employer, as well as our statutory objectives and corporate strategy.

For further information regarding the powers available to TPR in relation to defined benefit schemes and our approach to using our enforcement powers, please see the following link: enforcement options

8. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request. Please see exemptions section below.

9. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request. Please see exemptions section below.

Exemptions

Section 44(1)(a) – restricted information under s82 PA04

The reason that we cannot confirm or deny that we hold the information is because disclosure of the sort of information requested is prohibited under an enactment, save in certain circumstances which do not apply here. The enactment is the Pensions Act 2004 (PA04) and section 82 of it in particular.

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 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 operation of the FoIA starts with a presumption in favour 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 requested information. This exemption is absolute and does not require a public interest assessment be undertaken. Further, the duty to confirm or deny whether TPR holds the information does not apply in these circumstances.