More than a million employers have now complied with the law and set their staff on the road to saving towards their retirement.

The landmark we have announced today signals how successful the roll out of automatic enrolment has been and how far we have come since it started.

Around 9.3 million staff are now automatically enrolled and around 16,000 start up businesses each month will continue putting new staff into a pension.

By meeting their responsibilities, employers have helped support a sea change in worker behaviour - people now expect a workplace pension as part and parcel of their job.

The pensions industry including pension and payroll providers and the business adviser community, have also been crucial to the success. They have helped us ensure employers have the tools, information and services they need to meet their duties. We look forward to continuing to work with them so that the roll out continues to be a success and more people benefit from automatic enrolment.

We are not complacent and are now focused on the challenges ahead so that employers continue to do what they need to do to comply with the law.

We have written to every employer to tell them about the increase to the minimum pension contributions levels in April. Pension contributions will be increasing from a total of 2 per cent of the worker’s salary to 5 per cent. This should be straightforward for employers but they will need to make some simple checks with their payroll and pension providers to ensure they are ready to make the correct contributions at the right time.

Automatic enrolment is not an option, it’s the law.

We know most employers want to meet their responsibilities and we are here to help. But we are clear that we will take action to make sure staff receive the pensions they are entitled to.

It is simply not fair on the vast majority of employers who have done the right thing if a small minority fail to take the steps they need to take. Employers want to see action taken against those who flout the law.

Recently we prosecuted a bus company and its managing director for deliberately avoiding giving their staff work place pensions.

Earlier this month, Stotts Tours (Oldham) and Alan Stott were fined after they pleaded guilty to a total of 16 offences of wilfully failing to comply with the law on workplace pensions. This was the first such prosecution by TPR. They will now have to pay more than £60,000 after they admitted trying to deliberately avoid giving their staff workplace pensions.

We are also prosecuting a healthcare company and its managing director because we suspect they tried to avoid providing their staff with a workplace pension.

Birmingham-based Crest Healthcare and managing director Sheila Aluko have been charged with wilfully failing to comply with their automatic enrolment duties under section 45 of the Pensions Act 2008.

We don’t want to take employers to court, but we will be tough on employers who do not comply. Automatic enrolment is not an option, it’s the law.

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