A trustee has been fined £25,000 by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) for failing to complete two valuations for its defined benefit (DB) scheme.
Rentokil Initial Pension Trustee Limited failed to complete 2012 and 2015 valuations of the Initial Hospital Service Limited Number One Pension Scheme by their respective deadlines (July 2013 and July 2016).
Defined benefit pension scheme trustees are required to complete valuations every three years and, if the scheme is in deficit, they must submit a recovery plan and a schedule of contributions to the regulator.
Since April 2017 The Pensions Regulator has issued nine warning notices for late valuations.
Nicola Parish, executive director of frontline regulation at The Pensions Regulator, said: "Agreeing a triennial valuation is a key priority for the trustee of a scheme and its sponsoring employer. It allows us to check the health of a scheme and its ability to provide members with their expected retirement benefits.
"We are monitoring valuation due dates more regularly and this fine shows we will take tough action sooner to put things right where breaches occur."
The Pensions Regulator was informed the reason for the delay in completing both Initial Hospital Service valuations was a planned merger with a separate scheme run by sponsoring employer, Rentokil Initial PLC.
The Pensions Regulator repeatedly advised the trustee that the proposed merger was not a valid reason for failing to comply with the statutory requirements and they should progress with agreeing both valuations with the employer.
When the proposed merger failed to happen and the valuations had not been submitted by the end of 2017, The Pensions Regulator decided to take formal action.
The scheme has approximately 140 members.
The trustee has paid the fine.
emma.hughes@ft.com
