Pensions industry representatives have expressed frustration around delays in progressing various large policy areas and called on The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to share clearer guidance on key issues, such as dashboards and climate change.

TPR’s Summer 2022 Stakeholder Perceptions Research, which was carried out from May 2022 to July 2022, revealed that the vast majority of stakeholders were favourable towards the regulator, praising TPR for performing its role well.

Respondents also acknowledged the difficulties facing TPR given its challenging remit, its expanding powers and sheer volume of recent developments within the industry, the uncertain economic climate and general global instability.

In particular, TPR was praised for its responsiveness and proactivity in the context of COVID-19 and, more recently, the war in Ukraine and rising inflation.

The current economic climate was also mentioned as a key future challenge to the industry, and for the supposed effect it may have on TPR’s already extensive workload and its ability to meet its objectives and continued to support the industry.

Despite this, respondents generally recognised that, unlike during the pandemic when certain easements were introduced, TPR cannot regularly soften its regulation, acknowledging that it is not TPR’s role or responsibility to help the industry through times of economic uncertainty.

However, the research also identified a number of caveats to these favourable views of the regulator, particularly around a perceived lack of resourcing, which TPR acknowledged has been a “longstanding concern” raised through this research.

According to the survey, whilst stakeholders welcomed recent work on diversity and inclusion, as well as the creation of collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes, less or no progress was seen to have been made in other areas.

In particular, the survey highlighted frustration around the delay in the delivery of the defined benefit (DB) funding code, with some suggesting that a lack of resource may have inhibited TPR’s agility in progressing various large policy areas such as this.

Furthermore, there was concern that insufficient resource may also have limited TPR’s ability to carry out enforcement activities, as some respondents felt that there had been a recent decline in the frequency of event and relationship scheme supervision contact.

Somewhat related to resourcing, stakeholders also mentioned that TPR should try to ensure consistency of key contacts that schemes have within TPR, with frequent turnover mentioned as a cause for concern.

In addition to this, respondents called for clearer guidance in a number of key areas, with some respondents, for instance, requesting a "clear view" of what the regulator's 12–15-month engagement plan for pensions dashboards will look like.

Clearer guidance was also wanted from TPR relating to climate change and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, with some respondents suggesting that it would be beneficial for TPR to gain specialist expertise in this area.

TPR has since confirmed that it will look to take on board the industry feedback, with its annual Corporate Plan, to be published in early April, to address many of the topics covered in the stakeholder research.

Commenting in response to the findings, TPR stated: “We thank everyone who participated in the research, and welcome stakeholders’ feedback on our performance and the challenges we face as part of our wide-ranging remit, which has grown over time reflecting developments in the pensions landscape and legislative changes.

“We are pleased to see from the research that stakeholders recognise the effort and progress in many of the workstreams we are undertaking to address these challenges and to improve outcomes for savers.

“We have taken on board the feedback which informs our thinking and planning. Our annual Corporate Plan will be published in early April 2023, the content of which will provide an update in relation to many of the topics covered in this research.”

The stakeholder research was carried out from May 2022 to July 2022, and gathered views from 50 interviewees, including representatives from the pensions industry, industry bodies, parliament and government.

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