Box Clever report details TPR’s battle with ITV
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The Pensions Regulator has published its intervention report in the long-running Box Clever case, having now ceased its regulatory action. The report says the legal battle with broadcaster ITV provides clarity on several aspects of pensions legislation and enforcement.
The end of the Box Clever saga follows an agreement in principle in July 2024 that ITV would take all 2,800 Box Clever members into the ITV Pension Scheme where they will get full pensions, including back payments to make up for reduced benefits they received while in the Pension Protection Fund from 2014.
The agreement came after a dogged pursuit by TPR lasting 13 years, including an eight-year legal battle, ending with the Supreme Court refusing permission for ITV to appeal further in 2020.
TPR has now detailed how it “pursued ITV for more than 10 years” to reach the settlement, saying in its report that the case provides “helpful clarity” on the Financial Support Directive legislation and enforcement cases generally, especially retrospectivity, discrimination, reasonableness factors and on the scope of TPR’s case.
“Throughout our investigation we remained open to settlement discussions that would achieve a good outcome for the scheme and were pleased to reach a suitable agreement with ITV in July 2024,” said TPR’s executive director of regulatory compliance, Gaucho Rasmussen.
“I encourage everyone with an interest in DB schemes to read the report carefully to understand how we used our Financial Support Direction (FSD) powers to require ITV to put financial support in place for the Boxclever Group Pension Scheme.”
An ITV spokesperson said: "ITV and Box Clever Trustees Limited welcome resolution of this long-running dispute in a way that should provide all current Boxclever Pension Scheme members with their full Boxclever Pension Scheme benefits."
Box Clever was a joint venture between the TV rental businesses of Granada, now ITV, and Thorn, now Carmelite. Employees of the owning companies were transferred to the new JV’s pension scheme.
TPR opened an anti-avoidance investigation when Box Clever went under in 2011. It claims that before the collapse, “ITV extracted significant value from the joint venture”. After the legal battle, TPR issued Financial Support Directions to ITV and four associated entities in 2020. As ITV still failed to agree, in 2022 TPR issued a Contribution Notice for the scheme’s full buyout deficit, around £120m falling to about £77m last year, before a settlement was finally reached.
