FOI reference - FOI-316
Date - 19 September 2024
Request
Response
I confirm that we hold the information you have requested. However, the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure.
Section 44(1)(a) – restricted information under s82 Pensions Act 2004 (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’, which 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 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 requested information. This exemption is absolute and does not require a public interest assessment be undertaken.
We are the Regulator for work-based pension schemes with more than one registered member. Any work-based pension scheme registered with HMRC, with more than one member must by law register with us, and this must be done within three months from the date a scheme first becomes a registrable scheme. Therefore, if a scheme falls into this category (i.e. a work-based pension scheme registered with HMRC with more than one member) then it would fall under our remit as The Pensions Regulator.
I should make it clear that confirmation that where a scheme appears on our register this does not imply that we endorse the scheme. We are under a legal duty to register any scheme that notifies us that it meets certain conditions set out in legislation.
Help and advice
Please see Occupational defined benefit (DB) landscape in the UK 2023, which you may find helpful.