Foreword
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I am laying this report before Parliament under section 10(4) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 so that it is in the public domain. I know that the report is of interest to the people, and their MPs, who have complaints about the same matters which are the subject of this report.
In 2007 I accepted for investigation Mr L’s1 complaint about the Pensions Regulator. Mr L is a member of the Armstrong Pension Fund. He complained that the Pensions Regulator, when deciding to decline to impose a Financial Support Direction or Contribution Notice on the parent company of his former employer, which would have improved the funding position of his pension scheme, failed to exercise its statutory functions properly and its discretion reasonably. Mr L contended that as a result he, and many other pensioners in the scheme, have been prevented from receiving the level of pension they could otherwise have rightfully expected. My investigation did not find maladministration in the Pensions Regulator’s handling of these matters. Therefore, I did not uphold Mr L’s complaint.
Since I accepted Mr L’s complaint for investigation my Office has received ten further requests for investigation on these matters with referrals from MPs from more than one political party. Putting this report in the public domain enables the outcome of my investigation of Mr L’s complaint to be seen openly.
Ann Abraham
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
June 2010
