The Pensions Regulator has revealed it has paid £1.4m in external costs for the Silentnight legal case.

In January this year, the regulator revealed it had been successful in a legal challenge regarding an anti-avoidance case concerning the Silentnight Group defined benefit pension scheme.

The regulator made the revelation in response to a Freedom of Information request listed on its website. It was asked to provide an estimation of the costs involved with the Silentnight case.

In response, the regulator said it was unable to supple some of the information requested but confirmed that the external costs incurred on the Silentnight anti-avoidance case up to the 19 January 2017 are £1,405,485 (including VAT).

However, it said it was unable to provide an amount for the internal costs because it does not break down the cost of its internal resources at a level of individual cases. Despite this, the regulator noted that is does rely heavily on its internal resources when proceeding with an investigation and any subsequent regulatory action.

“Our case management process allocates internal resources flexibly on a basis of need, as each case moves forward, to ensure the most effective and efficient use of the experts we have in-house, who may be attached to a number of cases,” it said.

In addition, it refused to disclose the cost of the judicial review challenge of the Silentnight case, which was recently reported in the media. This information is exempt from disclosure under section 31(1)(c) of the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) as it is not yet complete and it is likely to be the subject of future costs recovery negotiations and / or proceedings.

“We consider that disclosure of the incomplete costs information we hold in relation to the judicial review proceedings might prejudice TPR’s ability to recover all relevant amounts from the claimants in those proceedings,” the regulator said.

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