Company pension scheme members may not be adequately protected under the current regulatory environment, a new report suggests.

If ever an organisation could not see the wood for the trees, its been Opra.

Edward Leigh House of Commons Public Accounts committee chairman

In a report by the National Audit Office, the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (Opra) has come under fire for concentrating too heavily on minor breaches at the expense of more serious cases.

The regulator whose responsibility is to oversee the running of company pensions in the UK can not see "the wood from the trees" and could miss big cases, the report implies.

The National Audit Office, which scrutinises public spending on behalf of parliament, said the majority of investigations that OPRA undertook had a "negligible" impact on pension scheme members.

Worrying sign

Opra was set up in the aftermath of the Robert Maxwell affair.

The late media tycoon stole hundreds of millions of pounds from the pension schemes of his various companies.

It was set up to ensure that company pensions schemes meet their obligations to members, and are properly run.

Over the last five years Opra has investigated 56,000 schemes.

However, the National Audit Office says that 60% of these cases were of a trivial nature and Opra's actions had little impact on pension scheme members.

Trivial reports

In one case a charity was fined �150 by the watchdog because the office manager had been late in paying the employer's contribution to her own pension scheme.

In addition, some firms were investigated for paying too much into their employees schemes.

The National Audit Office warned that handling such a large number of cases was restricting Opra's ability to target schemes in dire trouble.

As a result, the National Audit Office concluded that the watchdog should work with industry bodies and firms "to prevent trivial reports."

Opra chairman Harriet Maunsell called the report: "thorough and well balanced" and accepted the recommendations.

The chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts committee Edward Leigh added: "If ever an organisation could not see the wood for the trees, its been Opra."