Hays micro-site for  Pensions Regulator jobs.

Case one – the Chair debacle

What a total mess is the appointment of the  Chair of the Pensions Regulator. Over the weekend I was startled that the TPR was advertising for someone to review pensions policy who knew nothing about pensions, but this hardly compares with the correspondence between TPR and candidates for the job of Chair.

I have seen Sarah Smart turn from a formidable and vivacious Chair to a disconsolate forlorn Chair in recent years, the Pensions Regulator has become bloated with bodies many out on strike for much of the time. What a mess indeed.

I have more sad evidence of the mess the Pensions Regulator is today.

Let me quote two emails sent to candidates early this morning. The first

Dear xxx,

RE: The Pension Regulator (TPR) – Chair Sift Update

Thank you for your patience with this recruitment exercise. The advisory panel completed sifting on the 9^th of September 2025.  Following the sift, the results are sent to the minister’s office for the minister to review and make a decision on the candidate to be appointed as the new chair of TPR.

We hope a decision will be made within the next couple of weeks, unfortunately we are not able to provide a guaranteed date but we will keep you updated every 4 weeks that goes by without a decision.  Once a decision is made all applicants will be made aware.

Second an hour later

Dear xxx,

RE: The Pension Regulator (TPR) – Chair Sift Update

Sincere apologies my previous update stated that the minister would be making a decision regarding appointing the chair.  This was an error and should have stated the minister will be making a decision regarding candidates to be shortlisted for interview. 

Interviews are planned for the W/C 20/10/2025 and are anticipating a shortlist decision by early October

Once a decision is made all applicants will be made aware.  Once again apologies for any confusion caused

Many thanks

DWP ALB Public Appointments Team

The experience this group of candidates have been waiting for some time for this appointment. The wider group of people who worry about the Pensions Regulator have been awaiting for a new Chair for this regulator.

What we are getting is anybody’s case since the whole procedure is starting again, this time with the Pensions Minister in charge.

Whoever is on the advisory panel have been deciding with no authority, the Minister is going to decide (or has Torsten Bell made up his mind?).

Those of us who have been seeing a succession of interim Board directors for TPR , none of whom appear to have much to do with pensions are now seeing a political appointment in the very sense of the phrase.

I am sorry to see the state of the Pensions Regulator and of the DWP’s Appointments team. The situation looks to me a mess in keeping with the absurd appointment of civil servants for being civil servants, not pension experts.

Case two – the Chief Executive Officer (with an advert for a new one?)

Nausicaa Delfas is not , as far as I know leaving, but there is still a micro website run by the hopeless recruiter called Hays (not known in the public sector)

The site is live and pretends to be from the Pensions Regulator, try it out.

Goodness me! The only way I could work out that this was not a 2025 website was that the recently departed, Sarah Smart is on the video talking of her hopes for the CEO

Sarah Smart getting the last CEO in place (the advert is still up!)

The advert of the CEO job is a series of shots of Brighton in the sunshine, I question the recruitment process at all levels and am not surprised at the mass departure of the pensions people at the top of this Regulator.

Nausicaa is still there, she did 20 years at the FCA, she is toughing out, but she is not from a pension background and I fear that the political appointment of the new Chair is another step towards a Pensions Regulator who have little no experience of the pension business they are supposed to regulate.