Date - 25 August 2022
Request
I am seeking a list of all workplace pension schemes for a project I'm working on to try and improve the connectivity between companies and their customers.
In order to complete this, I need to know the amount of companies that offer pension plans to ensure that the project is scaled sufficiently.
Contact details or number of customers are not required for this, just the names of the companies, which should be public record, but are difficult to locate one by one.
Response
I can confirm that we hold the information falling within scope of your request, however, we are unable to supply the information requested for the reasons set out below.
Information we are not able to supply
Section 44(1)(a) – restricted information under s82 PA04
As we have been given strong powers to demand documents and other information from trustees, employers and others, those powers are also balanced by restrictions on how we disclose the information provided to us.
The type of information you have requested would be ‘restricted information’. Restricted information is defined at section 82(4) of the Pensions Act 2004 (PA04) as:
‘…information obtained by the Regulator in the exercise of its functions which relates to the business or other affairs of any person’.
Under section 82(5) of the PA04 it is a criminal offence to disclose such information except as permitted under that Act.
Whilst the FoIA is based on the presumption of releasing information, section 44(1)(a) of the FoIA provides an absolute exemption to the requirement to disclose any information if its disclosure is prohibited by or under any enactment. In this case, section 82 of the PA04 prohibits disclosure and we are unable to disclose the requested information. This exemption is absolute and does not require a public interest assessment be undertaken.