De Cecco UK Limited v The Pensions Regulator

By application dated 25 August 2023, the Appellant seeks to appeal against an Escalating Penalty Notice dated 4 May 2023. This was served for an alleged failure to comply with an Unpaid Contributions Notice dated 30 December 2022. The Escalating Penalty Notice was preceded in the usual way by a Fixed Penalty Notice dated 24 February 2023, but this has not been appealed.

In its Grounds of Appeal, the Appellant appears to accept that it had failed to comply with the Unpaid Contributions Notice and indeed accepts that it has unpaid contributions. It seeks to put forward mitigating circumstances for this situation.

By application dated 17 October 2023, the Regulator applied for this appeal to be struck out under rule 8 (2) (a) of the Tribunal’s Rules, on the basis that the Tribunal has no jurisdiction to determine them.

The Appellant was invited by the Tribunal, pursuant to rule 8 (4), to provide representations on the proposed strike out. The Appellant did not reply.

Parliament has provided that this Tribunal only has jurisdiction to consider appeals against financial penalties imposed by The Pensions Regulator when certain pre-conditions have been met. These include a requirement for The Pensions Regulator to have conducted a review. In this case, the Regulator did not receive a review request for the Escalating Penalty Notice within the relevant time limit, and so has not conducted a review of the penalty. It informed the Appellant of the situation on 12 August 2023.

I conclude that the necessary conditions for referral to the Tribunal under s. 44 (2) of the 2008 Act have not been met in this appeal. This has not been disputed by the Appellant. If the Tribunal lacks jurisdiction to determine an appeal, it is required to strike it out and has no discretion to consider it.

Accordingly, I now direct that this appeal be struck out and accordingly it will proceed no further.