Law360: The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has set out new rules for trustees managing investments in riskier equity assets, amid a wider push by the government for the sector to invest in new UK enterprises.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a blog post by its director of trusteeship, administration, and DB supervision, David Walmsley, offering insights on TPR’s experience of the first three transfers of DB pension schemes to the Clara superfund, namely the Sears Retail Benefit Scheme, the Debenhams scheme, and the Wates scheme. TPR has found that the persistent theme arising from the first three transactions is uncertainty from,  or misconceptions by, trustees and employers about what TPR requires from them despite the existing guidance available to them. In the blog,  TPR provides its insight on the essential requirements and considerations involved in the buy-out cost estimation, due diligence, rationale for transferring, the evaluation of full benefits post-transfer, and the structuring of bulk transfer terms.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a speech by its chief executive, Nausicaa Delfas, delivered at the Pensions Expert Conference, which outlines TPR’s vision for reform and its priorities for implementing the Pension Schemes Bill.

Law360: The Pensions Regulator (TPR) on 10 April 2024 urged trustees to consider official guidance for transitioning their investment portfolios to net-zero emissions standards.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has announced improvements to its anti-scam initiatives, focusing on strengthening intelligence gathering and cross-agency collaboration. TPR has embedded intelligence experts within key law enforcement bodies and is leading the Pension Scams Action Group (PSAG) to build a comprehensive picture of pension fraud. With £17.7 million reported lost to pension scams in 2023, TPR is highlighting the importance of increased vigilance and reporting from the pensions industry. Action Fraud is concurrently improving its reporting process, with implementation continuing throughout 2025. These measures aim to improve TPR's ability to prevent and disrupt pension scams, safeguarding savers' funds and supporting effective policy-making and enforcement actions.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has endorsed the findings of the Bank of England's System-Wide Exploratory Scenario (SWES), which demonstrates a significant improvement in pension fund resilience, particularly concerning Liability Driven Investment (LDI), over the past two years. The SWES, the first to include Non-Bank Financial Institutions, saw TPR play a crucial role in analysing its results. This development follows TPR's April 2023 guidance on managing risks associated with leveraged LDI, which evidence suggests pension schemes are actively implementing to bolster their resilience. TPR's Chief Executive, Nausicaa Delfas, emphasised TPR's ongoing commitment to safeguarding against systemic risks and ensuring the safety of pension savers.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has announced its support for government proposals regarding the use of surpluses in defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. With approximately 80% of DB schemes now fully funded, TPR's Chief Executive, Nausicaa Delfas, emphasised that while ensuring members receive promised benefits remains the primary objective, TPR supports efforts to safely release surplus funds where appropriate. This approach aims to potentially improve member benefits or facilitate broader economic investment. Concurrently, TPR has released new data on DB schemes, including estimates of assets, liabilities, and surpluses across various funding measures, to inform private pension policy development.

Law360: The Pensions Regulator (TPR) said that it is committed to cutting the 'burden' of unnecessary and outdated financial regulations that could be hampering pension savers' interests.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has announced that it is taking ‘tough’ action against pension schemes that fail to deliver value to members, as it will issue fines to corporate trustees that fail to comply. In line with regulation 25 of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996, SI 1996/1715 that requires trustees of schemes with less than £100m in assets to undertake a more detailed assessment of value for members, those failing to deliver value must set out a plan to improve, or transfer members to a better-value scheme and consider winding up their scheme. TPR also stated that, following its regulatory initiative to check that trustees of defined contribution (DC) schemes are providing value for members, TPR will now scrutinise information from DC scheme returns with the potential for fines to be issued for non-compliance.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a determination notice and regulatory intervention report providing further details on its anti-avoidance action in relation to the Danapak Flexibles Retirement Benefits Scheme, following its earlier press release of 6 August 2025 about the case. These documents confirm that more than £2.5 million will be paid into the scheme through settlements and contribution notices issued against individuals connected with Discovery Flexibles Limited (DFL), the sponsoring employer. The regulatory action underlines the risks of failing to engage properly with TPR where scheme funding and employer covenant concerns arise. Overall, the Danapak regulatory action illustrates TPR’s increasingly robust approach to covenant leakage and value extraction in defined benefit schemes with weak employer covenant support. It reminds employers and trustees that they should review existing funding arrangements, recovery plans, intra-group financing structures and governance processes to ensure that pension scheme interests are being properly considered and documented before corporate transactions proceed.

Law360: The Pensions Regulator (TPR) detailed on 3 May 2024 22 'priority outcomes' that will drive its work for the next three years, with policies reflecting its vision of 'fewer, larger schemes' in the market, which the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) described as ambitious.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published its 2026 Annual Funding Statement for defined benefit occupational pension schemes (AFS), setting out expectations for trustees and sponsoring employers at a time when most schemes are now in surplus. TPR’s central message is that stronger funding positions in defined benefit (DB) schemes should not lead to inaction. In line with last year’s statement, TPR expects most well-funded schemes to be shifting their focus from deficit recovery to long-term endgame planning. Trustees and employers should be assessing whether the scheme’s likely route is buyout, run-on or superfund consolidation, and ensuring the chosen strategy is clear, well-evidenced and deliverable, with TPR warning that the decisions made now will shape members’ futures. TPR expects schemes to use scheme valuations as a strategic tool, to lock in funding gains, define their endgame, manage surplus carefully, monitor covenant and investment risks, and maintain resilience against market, cyber, climate and operational shocks.  Among other things, TPR says it will shortly publish a statement on trustee considerations around surplus release, consult later in 2026 on more detailed surplus guidance, and support the implementation of final surplus regulations expected to come into force in 2027. TPR is also to update its statement of strategy guidance to clarify that schemes should use the same investment risk measure for reporting purposes as they use when assessing how much risk the employer can support.