The Pensions Regulator (TPR) met 12 of its 18 key performance indicators (KPIs) in 2019/20, its Annual Report and Accounts has revealed.

In a scoring system of ‘green’ for target achieved, ‘amber’ for narrowly missing the target and ‘red’ for missing the target by a “significant degree”, TPR labelled one KPI outcome as red and five as amber.

The one area where TPR felt it had missed out to a significant degree was high employee engagement.

Its employee engagement level of 62 per cent was higher than the public sector benchmark, but short of the “ambitious” 75 per cent target it had set itself.

Amongst its amber results were developing its approach to deliver the required data standard for the pensions dashboards, extending its supervision across more schemes and implementing new regulatory initiatives based on its core regulatory risk assessment.

However, it achieved a green result on 12 of its KPIs, including master trust authorisations, receiving scheme returns, reducing the length of recovery plans and increasing schemes’ deficit repair contributions (DRCs).

TPR chairman, Mark Boyle, said that the annual report demonstrated how TPR’s ‘clear, quick and tough’ approach left it “in an excellent position to adjust to the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of the financial year."

“Our organisational structure and culture provided a solid base for our Covid response. We have continued to support those we regulate to manage risks and protect pension scheme benefits in an effective, confident and organised way," he added.

The report showed that 98 per cent of eligible job holders were in an auto-enrolment (AE) scheme, and the 38 authorised master trusts comprised of 16 million members and £38.5bn in savings.

It also noted that TPR were in direct contact with “more schemes than ever”, covering around two-thirds of UK memberships.

Total DRCs had risen to £11.4bn and the average length of recovery plans re-submitted to TPR had shrunk from 7.5 years to 7.1 years.

Furthermore, 1.6 million employers had completing their declaration of compliance and 455,000 employers completed their re-declaration.

In total, TPR issued 48,267 fines for not complying with AE regulations, while 33.2 per cent of schemes had been subject to risk-targeted regulatory intervention by TPR and 150 mandatory penalty notices were issued where no chair's statement had been prepared or the statement did not comply with the requirements.

It used its information-gathering powers 83 times in 2019/20 and issued 40 financial penalties to schemes for not completing their scheme return when required.

Commenting on the report, TPR chief executive, Charles Counsell, said: “This year we’ve been able to ensure more people save into workplace pensions, that more is being contributed into workplace pensions and that there has been a reduction in recovery plan lengths across defined benefit schemes and there is better protection for the 16 million savers through our master trust authorisation process.

“Every saver deserves to be in a well-run and well-governed pension scheme, and we have successfully driven up standards across schemes thank to our supervisory approach. We have been in direct contact with more schemes than ever, creating strong, two-way relationships allowing us to monitor closely, clearly outline expectations and prevent problems developing in the first place.

“I’m pleased most schemes have welcomed our engagement and responded by improving standards. This year’s four regulatory initiatives saw us starting our engagement with 1,200 schemes on issues such as scheme funding and record-keeping driving up standards further and better protecting savers’ interests.”

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