CH-2024-000293 - [2025] EWHC 2980 (Ch)

Fecha: 14-Nov-2025

GROUND 1

GROUND 1

The statutory regime

26.

The Ombudsman’s jurisdiction derives from Part X of the Pension Schemes Act 1993. By s146(1) of that Act, the Pension Ombudsman may “investigate” and “determine” the following matters:

a “complaint” brought on behalf of an actual or potential beneficiary of a pension scheme who alleges that he or she has “sustained injustice in consequence of maladministration in connection with any act or omission of a person responsible for management of the scheme”; and

ii)

any “dispute” of fact or law in relation to an occupational or personal pension scheme between a “person responsible for the management of the scheme” and an actual or potential beneficiary where that dispute is referred to the Ombudsman by or on behalf of the actual or potential beneficiary.

27.

I take it to be common ground, in the absence of any suggestion from the appellants to the contrary, and given the definitions in s146(3) of the Pension Schemes Act 1993, that all appellants were “responsible for the management of” the Schemes with which they were involved by virtue of being trustees or, in the case of Brambles, a “manager” of the relevant Schemes.

28.

The Regulation 5 (Regulation 5) of the Personal and Occupational Pension Schemes (Pension Ombudsman) Regulations 1996 provides as follows:

5 Time limit for making complaints and referring disputes
(1)
Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3) below, the Pensions Ombudsman shall not investigate a complaint or dispute if the act or omission which is the subject thereof occurred more than 3 years before the date on which the complaint or dispute was received by him in writing.
(2)
Where, at the date of its occurrence, the person by or in respect of whom the complaint is made or the dispute is referred was, in the opinion of the Pensions Ombudsman, unaware of the act or omission referred to in paragraph (1) above, the period of 3 years shall begin on the earliest date on which that person knew or ought reasonably to have known of its occurrence.
(3)
Where, in the opinion of the Pensions Ombudsman, it was reasonable for a complaint not to be made or a dispute not to be referred before the end of the period allowed under paragraphs (1) and (2) above, the Pensions Ombudsman may investigate and determine that complaint or dispute if it is received by him in writing within such further period as he considers reasonable.