To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment she has made of the compatibility of the penalty regime for employers in the Pensions Act 2008 with the recommendations of the Hampton Review of Regulation. (318495)

The Government’s development of the penalty regime for employers in the Pensions Act 2008 included a thorough assessment of its compatibility with the recommendations of Sir Philip Hampton’s 2005 review, ‘Reducing administrative burdens: effective inspection and enforcement’. Equal consideration was also given to the penalty principles set out by Professor Richard B. Macrory when building on Hampton’s work specifically in the context of sanctions in his report ‘Regulatory Justice: Making Sanctions Effective’ (November 2006). We believe the regime of fixed and escalating penalties in the 2008 Act is fully compatible with the recommendations and principles of both the Hampton and Macrory reports.