Fines issued by The Pensions Regulator have tripled in value over the past 12 months.
In total the value of fixed penalty notices was £11.5m during the 2017/18 tax year. This compares to just £4.9m the year before.
There has been an even more significant increase in the value of escalating penalties issued during this period. These increased from £7.6m in 2016/17 to £30.4m in 2017/18.
The TPR says these increases are in part due to the high volume of employers reaching their auto-enrolment staging data during last year.
A fixed penalty notice of £40 is issued to an employer for failure to comply with a statutory notice or some specific employer duties. An escalating penalty notice is then issued afterwards, if an employer still has not complied.
These can vary from £40 to £10,000 depending on the size of the company.
The watchdog says it is working on being “clearer, quicker and tougher” regarding offending schemes and employers.
It its latest published figures it also revealed that the number of compliance notices regarding AE had also doubled over a 12 month period.
Earlier this month it published details of its annual DC survey showing many smaller pension schemes were failing to demonstrate they provide good value for members.
As a result the TPR says it will take a more “directive approach” to drive up standards of trusteeship in this sector of the market.
It is also toughening its stance with larger pension funds. Last week it announced it was introducing one-to-one supervision for the 25 biggest defined contribution, defined benefit, and public service pension schemes.