Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure pension schemes have an obligation to assess auto-enrolment pension scheme contributions regularly for accuracy, and to monitor error rates in contribution data; and what reassurance they are giving to members of such schemes that the amounts paid in on their behalf by their employers are correct.

Automatic enrolment has been a great success, with over 9.7 million employees enrolled and more than 1.2 million employers have met their duties to date. Government has put in place a robust, proportionate compliance framework. This is administered by The Pensions Regulator, and includes detailed regulatory guidance about how to comply with the law. An employer is required to select a qualifying pension scheme; enrol qualifying staff into that scheme, and deduct any contributions payable under automatic enrolment.

Employers are also required to pay those contributions across to their chosen pension provider by a set deadline. Although the deadlines for contribution payments vary, depending on the type of scheme being used, there is an overall legal deadline of the twenty-second day of the following month; which aligns with the HMRC deadline for paying tax and National Insurance.

Qualifying pension schemes for automatic enrolment are subject to the same regulatory framework as all trust-based workplace pension schemes, also overseen by The Pensions Regulator. The Regulator has published codes of practice on its website setting out how trustees of defined contribution pension schemes and managers of personal pension schemes should monitor the payment of contributions; provide information to help members check their contributions; and report material payment failures to the Regulator.