Published: 11 March 2021
Closing date: 22 April 2021
Response date: 29 September 2021
This consultation was for anyone seeking to understand our approach to investigating and prosecuting the new criminal offences of avoidance of employer debt to the scheme or risking accrued members’ benefits.
Consultation response
Summary
The Pension Schemes Act 2021 introduced two new criminal offences: the offence of avoidance of employer debt, and the offence of conduct risking accrued scheme benefits, under new sections 58A and 58B respectively of the Pensions Act 2004.
The draft policy sets out how we expect to investigate and prosecute these new criminal sanctions (although please note that we are not the only prosecuting authority for these offences).
In addition to seeking general views, in the consultation document we provided questions on areas where we are particularly interested in feedback.
We will consider all comments before publishing the final policy later in the year.