The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published the names of employers that have not complied with pensions auto-enrolment regulations after being issued an escalating penalty notice.
This includes organisations that TPR has secured a court order against for failure to pay escalating penalty notices for auto-enrolment non-compliance, as well as those that have paid escalating penalty notices but have not yet fulfilled their auto-enrolment duties.
An escalating penalty notice is issued if employers continue to be non-compliant after receiving a fixed penalty notice worth £400. An escalating penalty notice can increase by up to £10,000 a day until the fee is paid.
Employers that remain non-compliant after being issued with a penalty notice may have to face additional enforcement action, such as prosecution.
Organisations that feature on the list of employers that are subject to a court order include fabricated products organisation EWM and Woodlands Manor Care Home. Both businesses owe £52,500 for unpaid escalating penalty notices.
Employers that feature on the list of organisations that have paid an escalating penalty notice but remain non-compliant with auto-enrolment regulations include Mercure George Hotel, which paid an escalating penalty notice of £14,000, and labelling firm Armor UK, which paid £5,000.
These lists, which will be updated and published each quarter, have been made public to highlight the importance of meeting auto-enrolment requirements, and to demonstrate the large fines that employers can incur for non-compliance.
The lists have been published alongside TPR’s Automatic enrolment: compliance and enforcement quarterly bulletin, 1 January-31 March 2017 report, which showed that TPR issued a total of 4,673 fixed penalty notices of £400 and 1,043 escalating penalty notices in January-March 2017.
Charles Counsell, executive director of automatic enrolment at TPR, said: “Employers who wilfully refuse to become compliant should be in no doubt that we will take enforcement action against them, as these lists show.
“Automatic enrolment is not an option, it is the law. Allowing some employers to get away with non-compliance is not fair on the employees who are denied the workplace pensions they are entitled to and is not fair on the vast majority of businesses who have taken the time to meet their responsibilities.
“To date, we have only had to bring court proceedings against a tiny proportion of employers, but every court case is one too many; and one that employers can easily avoid by becoming compliant.”