UK Pensions: What's new this week - September 1, 2025

TPR: regulatory intervention report on Edinburgh Woollen Mill scheme rescue

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a regulatory intervention report on the rescue of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill Ltd Retirement Benefits Scheme (the Scheme) following the insolvency of its sponsoring employer.

Due to concerns about the payment of material dividends and other matters prior to the employer’s insolvency in late 2020, TPR opened an enquiry and began gathering evidence for a potential anti-avoidance investigation. At the same time, it engaged with Purepay Retail Limited which had acquired the business from administration, about a potential scheme rescue. Purepay is connected to the previous sponsoring employer through shared directors.

A Scheme Apportionment Arrangement was agreed in December 2024 under which Purepay became the scheme’s statutory employer (meaning that the scheme avoided transferring into the PPF and there was no reduction in members’ benefits). Purepay also made aGBP7 million lump sum cash contribution to the scheme to mitigate detriment caused by the employer’s insolvency and agreed a recovery plan, including covenant protections and downside mechanisms which apply until the scheme is funded to a level such that it has little or no reliance on the covenant. The scheme has now exited PPF assessment and is expected to achieve full funding on a low dependency basis within three to four years.

TPR emphases the importance of employers keeping trustees fully informed of their financial position and prospects, especially when facing financial difficulties. TPR also reminds trustees and employers that it welcomes early dialogue to resolve situations without needing to formally engage its anti-avoidance powers.

Read the regulatory intervention report and the press release.

Court of Appeal: consideration of "non-material damage" in data breach cases

The Court of Appeal has ruled that over 400 claims relating to a data protection breach by a pension scheme administrator should not have been struck out by the High Court: Farley v. Paymaster (1836) Limited (trading as Equiniti) and the Information Commissioner.

The case arose from an incident in August 2019 when the administrator of the Sussex Police pension scheme sent annual benefit statements (containing personal data of current and former police officers) to over 750 out-of-date addresses. Affected members joined a collective action claiming that the unlawful processing by the administrator had caused them non-material damage (anxiety, alarm, distress and embarrassment). The High Court struck out all but 14 of the claims because members could not show that the statement had been opened and read by a third party (for example, the statement had been returned unopened to the sender or eventually received by them unopened), so their privacy had not been compromised.

The remaining 432 members appealed against the dismissal of their claims. The Court of Appeal has now ruled that the High Court was wrong to strike out the claims on the ground of non-disclosure, because disclosure of the data was not an essential ingredient of a claim that the administrator had infringed the GDPR.

The administrator argued that the decision to dismiss the claims should be upheld on different grounds, including that the claims for compensation were incredible or untenable as a matter of law, or so trivial that they constituted an abuse of process. The Court of Appeal ruled that the factual allegations of distress were not incredible (and it would be a "strong thing" for the court to reject their statements without hearing from the individuals) and that the concept of damage should be interpreted broadly rather than being limited specifically to distress. As to the argument that the claims were too trivial, there was no applicable "threshold of seriousness" test in data protection law. The court held that the administrator was entitled to argue that members’ fears of third-party misuse were not well-founded and could not qualify as "non-material damage" that might entitle them to compensation—but that question would have to be answered on a case-by-case basis and it would not be efficient for the Court of Appeal to conduct that review; rather, it should be remitted to the High Court. On the question of whether the proceedings were abusive (because the cost of defending the claims would be wholly disproportionate to any benefits to the claimants), the claims as a class could not be categorised as abusive, although individual cases might be.

We will keep a watching brief on further developments in this case. The judgment records that Sussex Police took a number of steps in response to the breach, including notifying the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and affected members and offering access to a fraud protection service. The ICO had concluded that no further action was required. The judgment also notes the scale of costs involved in the conduct and defence of the collective action to date.

Read the judgment.

ICO: consultation on draft complaints guidance

The Data (Use and Access) Act will amend the Data Protection Act 2018 to require organisations to provide a mechanism for receiving and dealing with data protection complaints. The ICO is consulting on draft guidance setting out the new requirements and covering actions before, during and after a complaint. The consultation closes on October 19, 2025.

Read the draft guidance and respond to the consultation.

Save the date: Pensions Academy Online, Tuesday 7 and Thursday 9 October 2025

Our next Pensions Academy Online sessions will take place on Tuesday, October 7 and Thursday, October 9, 2025. Each webinar begins at 9:30am and will last approximately one hour. We will be covering:

Legal update—Tuesday, October 7, 2025

We’ll round up all the latest developments and outline what’s on the pensions horizon.

Pensions 2030 and beyond: preparing now for the future landscape—Thursday, October 9, 2025

The Pension Schemes Bill currently going through Parliament heralds significant change across the UK pensions landscape and more could be coming down the tracks. We’ll look at how the big picture fits together, from the perspectives of trustees, employers and members, to help you plot a route from here to there.

If you would like to attend, please register here.