Pensions Crimes and Fines: Directors (and others) who consent, connive or neglect

David Pollard and Sebastian Allen gave a seminar to the Association of Pension Lawyers (APL) in June 2025 on:

Pensions crimes and fines: Where a company is liable, what is the secondary person extension to third parties: “a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer”?

The full text paper providing background for the seminar is now on the APL website and a link is below.

The world of pensions has always stood out as a confluence of different areas of civil law; a legal fusion of trusts, equity, employment and company law, all underpinned by a vast array of statutory and regulatory provisions.

Since the Pension Schemes Act 2021 (“PSA 2021”), the more alien world of criminal law has been reinforced as part of this melting pot of legal principle and practice. Pensions practitioners throughout the industry have had to get to grips with a variety of criminal law issues, which most people will have thought they had safely left behind at law school.

The paper deals with one particular aspect of this “crimes and fines” approach, namely when what the paper calls a “secondary person extension” applies to make a “director, manager, secretary or other officer” of the body corporate (or company) liable as well as the body corporate itself.

The paper considers:

A  An overview of the pensions crimes and fines?
This section outlines some of the various crimes and fines provisions under the pensions legislation.

B  The secondary party extension – who?
The paper then looks at who it is that can commit these criminal offences or penalty provisions – not only in terms of those who are primarily responsible for particular conduct, but also in terms of when a secondary person (eg a director or manager of the company) can also be convicted or incur liability.

C  The secondary party extension – when?

View the full paper