The Pensions Regulator

Regulator publishes annual report and accounts 2007/08

Ref: PN08-13
17 July 2008

The Pensions Regulator has published its annual report and accounts for the financial year 2007/2008, its third full year of operation.

The report highlights a number of achievements over the year, including:

• the successful launch of the online scheme return and Exchange service;
• delivery of all the remaining Trustee toolkit e-learning modules;
• successful consultations on our approach to governance and revised clearance guidance;
• the endorsement of our risk-based approach to regulation in a National Audit Office value-for-money review;
• emerging evidence from our analysis of recovery plans of the positive impact we are having on scheme funding; and
• the good progress we have made in identifying and addressing the key risks to DC schemes.

Pensions Regulator chief executive Tony Hobman said: “I am pleased to report that by the end of our third year of operation we have completed all of the steps necessary to build the capacity and capability required to successfully discharge our current statutory functions.

“We have continued to perform well against our key performance indicators, with improvements against many of the benchmarks set last year, whilst continuing to deliver good value for money to the levy payers who fund our work.

“We recognise fully, however, the importance of meeting the challenges that lie ahead as we take forward our remit on both DB and DC schemes; and continue to gear ourselves up to take on our new statutory objective in relation to employer compliance with the new duties in the Pensions Bill.”

The Pensions Regulator has also today published its Governance Survey for 2008, an annual survey designed to assess the standards of scheme governance of occupational pension schemes in the UK. The survey can be viewed on the regulator website.

Editor's notes

1. To view the annual report in full visit the regulator's website.
2. The Pensions Regulator is the regulator of work-based pension schemes in the UK, with objectives to protect members' benefits, promote good administration and reduce the risk of calls on the Pension Protection Fund. Our approach is risk-based focusing on education and enablement, with enforcement where appropriate. We have the ability to:
   
   • collect information about pension schemes; through scheme returns, under the scheme funding regime and as well as statutory (including whistleblowing) reports;
   • issue notices requiring actions to tackle non-compliance, prohibit trustees who are judged not fit and proper to carry out their duties or appoint independent trustees;
   • direct pension schemes as to how to calculate their liabilities and the contributions required;
   • issue a contribution notice where there is a deliberate attempt to avoid liabilities, or a financial support direction where the employer is a service company or insufficiently resourced.