Court escalation of automatic enrolment penalties

FOI reference - FOI-435

Date - 24 November 2025

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Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information relating to enforcement of automatic enrolment duties.

1. For each financial year from 2015–16 to 2024–25 (or latest available), the number of automatic enrolment cases escalated to court action, broken down by:
   1. County Court Judgments issued following non-payment of a Fixed Penalty Notice (£400)
   2. County Court Judgments issued following non-payment of an Escalating Penalty Notice
   3. Cases referred to enforcement agents (bailiffs)
   4. Cases resulting in additional court fees or costs being applied to the employer
   5. Cases where TPR instructed HMCTS to begin civil enforcement
2. For each of those years, the total value of court-imposed penalties, fees, or costs added on top of the original penalty notice.
3. For each year, the number of court-escalated cases where the employer was classified as:
   1. micro-employer (1–9 staff)
   2. small employer (10–49 staff)
   3. medium employer
   4. large employer (using TPR or BEIS size definitions)
4. Copies of any internal guidance or policy documents that set out:
   1. when TPR decides to escalate a penalty to the courts
   2. any proportionality checks for micro and small employers
   3. procedures for confirming that payment instructions have been issued before escalation

On 2 December 2025 you kindly clarified that this information request is for England and Wales only.

Response

Under Section 12(4) of the FoIA and the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, public authorities are permitted to aggregate two or more requests received from the same requester for the purpose of calculating the cost limit. We have therefore treated your two requests (FOI-435 & FOI-436) as a single aggregated request.

We have assessed the time required to locate, retrieve, and extract the requested information for the full scope of your enquiry. We have determined that complying with the requests in full would exceed the appropriate limit set out in the Fees Regulations. However, we are mindful of our duty to provide assistance under Section 16 of the FoIA. Therefore, we have conducted work up to the appropriate limit and have been able to collate some of the data you requested.

Below is all data from 2015-16 to current. All cases as mentioned have the relevant court fees added to the debt. Please note that we are unable to provide the remaining requested information as doing so would exceed the statutory cost limit.

England and Wales Only

Volume of Court Action Taken	12,609
Value of Court Action taken	£44,318,305.43
Cases Referred to High Court Enforcement	2,615
FPN Only value	£2,558,785.50
FPN Only Volume	4,973
FPN & EPN or EPN Only	£41,759,519.93
EPN Only Volume	7,636

I hope that this response has provided you with the information you were seeking. If you have any further questions or require clarification, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Thank you for your interest in our organisation.

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