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A report published on 2 October 2026 says employer and employee pension contributions for workers at Sanjeev Gupta’s Lochaber smelter had not been paid since July. The report, attributed to The Herald and reproduced by pensions commentator Henry Tapper, also says Liberty Steel Group chief transformation officer Jeff Kabel told staff that the company had notified The Pensions Regulator. The available reporting does not establish whether the arrears have since been paid or what action the regulator has taken.
What is reported about the Lochaber pension contributions?
The report says contributions for both employers and employees had gone unpaid since July 2026. Its account was reproduced by Henry Tapper of Pensions Mutual on 2 October; the reproduction is the available basis for the claim, rather than independently verified scheme or regulator records. It does not identify the pension schemes, legal employers, affected workers, unpaid amounts, or the exact contribution periods.
The reproduced report says staff at the smelter and Jahama Highland Estates received an email from Jeff Kabel on the Thursday before publication. It summarizes the email as saying the company had notified The Pensions Regulator. The underlying email and regulator notice are not available in the account, so the notification should be treated as reported, not as confirmation of a regulator finding or enforcement action.
Have the contributions been paid?
That is not established by the reporting available as of 2 October 2026. It does not say whether money later reached a pension scheme, when any payment may have been made, or whether any arrears remain outstanding. It also does not establish whether employee contributions were deducted from workers’ pay. The report concerns pension contributions; it does not report that workers’ wages were unpaid.
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The outstanding details needed to clarify the position include the affected employing entities and schemes, contribution months and due dates, amounts, any later payments, and any case-specific statement from the employer, trustees or regulator.
What does The Pensions Regulator say about late contributions?
The Pensions Regulator’s general automatic-enrolment guidance states: “You have an ongoing legal duty to pay pension contributions into your scheme on time.” It describes a process in which a pension provider reports outstanding mismatches and contacts the employer. If contributions remain unpaid 14 days after the regulator receives a report, the regulator says it will begin enforcement by issuing an unpaid contributions notice; further enforcement may include fines. These are general rules, not evidence that a notice or fine has been issued in the Lochaber case. The Pensions Regulator’s guidance on late contributions explains the process.
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What trustee duties may apply?
The type of affected Lochaber pension arrangement is not identified in the report. The following guidance is relevant only if a defined-benefit (DB) scheme is involved; it should not be taken as evidence that the workers belong to one.
For DB schemes, The Pensions Regulator says trustees should prepare and maintain a schedule of contributions, check payments against it, and contact an employer promptly when a payment failure occurs. Material late payments should usually be reported within 10 working days after trustees have reasonable cause to believe a failure exists. For member contributions, the regulator says the schedule must not set a payment date later than the 22nd day of the month after deduction from pay, or the 19th day if payment is not electronic. Those timing rules do not establish the due dates for the reported Lochaber contributions. The regulator’s DB contribution guidance sets out the trustee responsibilities.
What is the Lochaber public-finance context?
The pension report sits alongside public scrutiny of the Lochaber project, but that context does not establish a cause for the reported contribution issue.
- Guarantee: A Scottish Government FOI response says the Lochaber Guarantee was £586 million when issued in 2016. It says the amounts guaranteed decline annually, ranging from £14 million to £32 million per year through 2041, and that the government receives a guarantee fee. These are guarantee figures, not pension arrears or a statement of current exposure. Scottish Government FOI response, 2 February 2026.
- Government contact: The same FOI response identifies 28 October 2025 as the most recent correspondence with GFG Alliance and says the government received regular financial updates from Lochaber businesses. It does not establish the contents of those updates or contact after that date. It also records a meeting on 9 September 2025 between Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee and GFG Alliance chief transformation officer Jeffrey Kabel.
- Parliamentary scrutiny: In March 2026, the Scottish Parliament Public Audit Committee recorded scrutiny concerning government due diligence and risks to public funds. Its report referred to the collapse of Greensill Capital, a Serious Fraud Office investigation and five years without lodged audited accounts as matters arising in that scrutiny. These are committee-reported governance and financial-context issues, not evidence explaining the pension report. Scottish Parliament Public Audit Committee report, March 2026.
Sources and limits of what is known
The current allegation and reported staff email come from The Herald’s account as reproduced by Henry Tapper / Pensions Mutual on 2 October 2026. The original Herald article was not directly accessible in the material available for this report. No direct statement from an affected worker, scheme trustee, employer or The Pensions Regulator about this specific matter is established by that reproduction. The general regulator guidance explains duties and possible processes; it does not confirm that those steps occurred in Lochaber.
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