The Pensions Regulator has begun a name and shame operation to show which companies are failing to comply with auto-enrolment.

Employers taken to court for failing to pay fines for workplace pension non-compliance are being made public on a new list published in a quarterly bulletin.

For the first time TPR has revealed the details of every organisation that it has secured a court order against over automatic enrolment responsibilities.

In each case the employer had been issued with an escalating penalty notice (EPN) by TPR for non-compliance but had failed to pay it.

Separately TPR has published the details of every employer that continues to ignore its automatic enrolment responsibilities despite having been issued with – and having paid – an EPN.

For employers who remain non-compliant with auto-enrolment duties, the regulator warned it “may consider taking additional enforcement action against them, including prosecution in appropriate cases”.

TPR hopes the name and shame list will highlight the importance of employers meeting their automatic enrolment requirements, emphasising the large fines that can be imposed on employers if they don’t.

The two lists being published today include organisations spread across the UK, from the north of Scotland to the south of England. It features small and medium-sized firms, across a range of industries and sectors.

Charles Counsell, TPR’s executive director of automatic enrolment, said: “Employers who wilfully refuse to become compliant should be in no doubt that we will take enforcement action against them, as these lists show.

“Automatic enrolment is not an option, it is the law. Allowing some employers to get away with non-compliance is not fair on the employees who are denied the workplace pensions they are entitled to and is not fair on the vast majority of businesses who have taken the time to meet their responsibilities.

“To date we have only had to bring court proceedings against a tiny proportion of employers, but every court case is one too many – and one that employers can easily avoid by becoming compliant.”

Updated lists will be published each quarter, alongside the publication of the compliance and enforcement quarterly bulletin.