FOI reference - FOI-215
Date - 24 January 2024
Request
I would like to request data for the number of Section 72, Section 72A, Section 73 and Section 78 of the Pensions Act 2004 requests issued since 2018, broken down into annual quarter.
I would also like to request this information broken down into nature/industry of the businesses which the section 72 information request was made to and the reason for the request being made.
Response
I confirm that we hold some of the information you have requested.
We have provided the information we hold in Annex A and Annex B. The information is for notices issued up to the last complete quarter and has been split between our Automatic Enrolment compliance activities (Annex A), and then our Frontline Regulation activities (Annex B).
For our Frontline Regulation activities, we have only provided figures in Annex B for the number of notices issued. We do not readily have available statistical data on the reasons for issuing the notices or industry type that would fully answer your request. We hold data on the case type, however the way we categorise cases has changed periodically. Therefore, it would not necessarily correlate to an accurate answer to the second part of your request even with considerable explanation of the labels.
The information is likely held within the documentation for each case, however to extract the data to create the figures would entail reviewing each case individually. Such an activity would likely take us over the costs threshold for compliance set out in section 12 of the FoIA. We are also not obligated to create data to answer a request where doing so would take significant effort, therefore I have determined that we do not hold statistical data to answer the second part of your request.
Please note that for the period covering your request we did not issue any Section 73 or Section 78 notices under the Automatic Enrolment regime. I provided a link below to the previous time we provided figures in relation to our powers, as you may find this helpful.
Also for your information a round-up of how often we have used our wider powers will be published in our six-monthly Compliance and Enforcement (C&E) Bulletin in late March 2024. Previous C&E bulletins can be found on our website.
Annex A
Notices issued
Quarterly summary of Pensions Act 2004 s72, s72(1A) powers used in Automatic Enrolment directorate
| Year | Period | Section 72 - PA 2004: Demand information for occupational and personal pension schemes |
Section 72(1A) - PA 2004: Demand information (AE) |
Grand total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Total | 10 | 343 | 353 |
| Qtr 1 | 2 | 73 | 75 | |
| Qtr 2 | 4 | 123 | 127 | |
| Qtr 3 | 4 | 86 | 90 | |
| Qtr 4 | - | 61 | 61 | |
| 2019 | Total | 14 | 643 | 657 |
| Qtr 1 | 3 | 63 | 66 | |
| Qtr 2 | 5 | 77 | 82 | |
| Qtr 3 | 3 | 108 | 111 | |
| Qtr 4 | 3 | 395 | 398 | |
| 2020 | Total | 9 | 234 | 243 |
| Qtr 1 | 7 | 102 | 109 | |
| Qtr 2 | - | 18 | 18 | |
| Qtr 3 | 1 | 62 | 63 | |
| Qtr 4 | 1 | 52 | 53 | |
| 2021 | Total | 3 | 137 | 140 |
| Qtr 1 | - | 37 | 37 | |
| Qtr 2 | - | 35 | 35 | |
| Qtr 3 | 2 | 31 | 33 | |
| Qtr 4 | 1 | 34 | 35 | |
| 2022 | Total | 5 | 127 | 132 |
| Qtr 1 | 1 | 27 | 28 | |
| Qtr 2 | - | 39 | 39 | |
| Qtr 3 | 2 | 29 | 31 | |
| Qtr 4 | 2 | 32 | 34 | |
| 2023 | Total | 9 | 128 | 137 |
| Qtr 1 | 5 | 28 | 33 | |
| Qtr 2 | 3 | 36 | 39 | |
| Qtr 3 | 1 | 30 | 31 | |
| Qtr 4 | - | 34 | 34 | |
| Grand total | 50 | 1,612 | 1,662 | |
Notes
- Data is taken from Automatic Enrolment casework data.
Industry sector
| Industry sector (based on SIC code) |
Section 72 - PA 2004: Demand information for occupational and personal pension schemes |
Section 72(1A) - PA 2004: Demand information (AE) |
Grand total |
|---|---|---|---|
| A - Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing | - | 3 | 3 |
| B - Mining and Quarrying | - | 2 | 2 |
| C - Manufacturing | 2 | 95 | 97 |
| D - Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply | - | 2 | 2 |
| E - Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Activities | - | 8 | 8 |
| F - Construction | 2 | 107 | 109 |
| G - Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles | 5 | 133 | 138 |
| H - Transportation and Storage | 5 | 62 | 67 |
| I - Accommodation and Food Service Activities | 3 | 173 | 176 |
| J - Information and Communication | - | 41 | 41 |
| K - Financial and Insurance Activities | - | 33 | 33 |
| L - Real Estate Activities | - | 23 | 23 |
| M - Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities | 2 | 93 | 95 |
| N - Administrative and Support Service Activities | 7 | 165 | 172 |
| O - Public Administration and Defence; Compulsory Social Security | - | 2 | 2 |
| P - Education | 2 | 18 | 20 |
| Q - Human Health and Social Work Activities | 1 | 111 | 112 |
| R - Arts, Entertainment and Recreation | 2 | 23 | 25 |
| S - Other service activities | 4 | 77 | 81 |
| Z - No match | 15 | 441 | 456 |
| Grand total | 50 | 1,612 | 1,662 |
Notes
- Data is taken from Automatic Enrolment casework data.
- Where the organisation subject to the case is incorporated, a match to Companies House is made on the organisation's Company Number.
Where a match to Companies House is made, and the organisation has registered one SIC code with Companies House, a matched SIC Section is returned. - An SIC code is a condensed list of codes for providing Companies House with a description of a company's nature of business.
- The time period covered by the above data is 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2023.
Reason for request being made
| Reason for request being made | Section 72 - PA 2004: Demand information for occupational and personal pension schemes |
Section 72(1A) - PA 2004: Demand information (AE) |
Grand total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic Enrolment duties breach | 31 | 1,240 | 1,271 |
| Criminal breach | - | 1 | 1 |
| Late payment of contributions | 19 | 371 | 390 |
| Grand total | 50 | 1,612 | 1,662 |
Notes
- Data is taken from Automatic Enrolment casework data.
- The time period covered by the above data is 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2023.
Annex B
Quarterly summary of Pensions Act 2004 s72, s72a, s73, s78 powers used in Frontline Regulation directorate
| Year | Period | PA95 s98, PA04 s72 |
PA04 s72A | PA95 s99, PA04 s73 |
PA95 s100, PA04 s78(2)(a) |
Grand total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Total | 162 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 167 |
| Qtr 1 | 44 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 49 | |
| Qtr 2 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | |
| Qtr 3 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | |
| Qtr 4 | 49 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 49 | |
| 2019 | Total | 104 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 104 |
| Qtr 1 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | |
| Qtr 2 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | |
| Qtr 3 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | |
| Qtr 4 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | |
| 2020 | Total | 60 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 60 |
| Qtr 1 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |
| Qtr 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| Qtr 3 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | |
| Qtr 4 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |
| 2021 | Total | 88 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 88 |
| Qtr 1 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | |
| Qtr 2 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | |
| Qtr 3 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | |
| Qtr 4 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | |
| 2022 | Total | 35 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| Qtr 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| Qtr 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| Qtr 3 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |
| Qtr 4 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | |
| 2023 | Total | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| Qtr 1 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | |
| Qtr 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| Qtr 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| Qtr 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | |
| Grand total | 489 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 495 | |
| Legislative reference | Description |
|---|---|
| PA95 s98, PA04 s72 | Demand information and documents for occupational and personal pension schemes |
| PA04 s72A | Requirement to attend for Interview |
| PA95 s99, PA04 s73 | Inspect premises |
| PA95 s100, PA04 s78(2)(a) | Obtain a warrant from Magistrates Court to search premises and seize documents |