The Pensions Regulator has today published its corporate plan for the next three years, outlining its regulatory priorities and vision to be a “strong, agile, fair and efficient” regulator.

The regulator wants to gain the respect of employers, trustees and other stakeholders. As part of its corporate plan, TPR outlined eight key priorities that it wants to address over the next three years. The first is to enhance and execute effective regulatory approaches across all schemes. As part of this, it will be intervening more widely, and tailoring its approaches to specific risks and circumstances.

“This will enable us to use our resources more effectively and to be clearer in our expectations, quicker to respond and tougher where we need to be. To do this, we are developing different regulatory tools and improving the data we hold and the way we use it. We will also continue to conduct more visits and inspections. This broader regulatory approach will encompass DB, DC and PS schemes presenting the highest risk to members,” it said.

In order to drive up trustee standards, it will improve governance and administration through its ongoing 21st Century Trusteeship campaign. It warned that if schemes fail to meet the basic duties, it will take action. “Where schemes are unable to meet the standards of governance we expect, we will encourage them to explore consolidation into an alternative arrangement that provides good value for their members,” it said.

Two other areas of importance for the regulator are the effective regulation of DB schemes, and master trusts. In terms of DB it will continue to assess the DB landscape to highlight trends and respond to issues by setting out clear expectations of schemes through its DB landscape and annual funding statement publications.

The regulator is in charge of overseeing the authorisation of master trust schemes and will be open to applications from October 2018. The master trust regulations will be laid before parliament this year, and the regulator’s draft code of practice and supporting guidance will be finalised to support master trusts in meeting our expectations of them.

As auto-enrolment has now been rolled out to all businesses, the regulator will continue to make sure that employers are complying with their duties. With Brexit on the horizon, TPR said it will continue to work closely with the government and wider pensions industry to build its understanding and response to the potential effects of Brexit on schemes.

“This work will include responding to any changes to European pensions law and requirements into UK law, and assessing the implications for cross-border schemes. As further analysis of the effects of Brexit on UK pension schemes becomes available, we will provide specific guidance to schemes and the industry where appropriate,” it said.

The regulator’s seventh priority is to equip its people to meet the challenges it faces, and its eighth is to deliver The Pensions Regulator of the future. It said that having worked closely with a wide range of stakeholders, who have added to its understanding of the changing regulatory landscape over the last year, “we continue to design and roll out a new operating model for regulation – known as TPR Future”.

TPR chairman Mark Boyle said the regulator is meeting the challenge of a changing pensions landscape by “embedding a new regulatory culture” and “reinforcing our regulatory teams on the frontline”.

"In the coming year, you can expect to see us being more vocal about our expectations of those we regulate and intervening quickly and decisively through our wide-ranging regulatory activity and enforcement powers so that workplace pension schemes are run properly and people can save safely for retirement."

The plan also delivers a significant increase in resources to protect pension savers. TPR plans to spend £4.3 million more in 2018/19 than in 2017/18 (an increase of 5.2 per cent). This will help TPR to crack down on sponsoring employers who are not taking their duties towards their pension schemes seriously, as well as launch a new anti-scams campaign to help prevent savers from being ripped-off. At the same time, TPR will be working with trustees to improve scheme governance and with the majority of companies who are working hard to do the right thing.

Over a third of headcount (34 per cent) this year will be allocated to TPR’s Frontline Regulation team which together with automatic enrolment (16 per cent) and policy and advisory work (20 per cent), means a significant majority of resources will be directly focused on delivering better regulatory outcomes. During the year, TPR plans to increase its headcount by 12 per cent as a result of its increased workload and remit.

The regulator’s funding comes from two main sources; a grant-in-aid from the Department for Work and Pensions, which is recoverable from a scheme levy relating to Pensions Act 2004 duties, and a separate grant-in-aid from general taxation relating to the AE programme arising from Pensions Act 2008 duties.

Over the next three years, TPR’s budget is set to increase from £88,661m to £91,163m, an increase of £2.5m. For 2018/19 the levy funded budget was £52,396m, with the auto-enrolment funded budget at £42,018m. By 2020/21, the levy funded budget will be £54,512m, and the auto-enrolment funded budget will be £95,564m.

Total staff numbers are set to increase from 660 now, to 720 by 2020/2021. This will be made up of 521 levy funded staff to 199 auto-enrolment funded staff, compared to 442 and 218 now. The regulator said the increase in levy funded staff reflects the additional staff required to fulfil its broadened responsibilities, and to implement its new regulatory approaches. The slight reduction in auto-enrolment staff reflects predicted efficiencies that will be achieved by better use of data.

TPR Chief Executive Lesley Titcomb said: "Our corporate plan sets out how we are becoming a clearer, quicker and tougher regulator. It highlights our wide regulatory remit including ensuring employers meet their workplace pension duties, authorising master trusts, securing funding for defined benefit schemes and a continued commitment to fighting scams.

"By delivering on our eight corporate priorities we will ensure TPR meets the regulatory challenges of the future and will address the biggest risks facing the pensions industry."

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