In her letter to Field, Titcomb, who give evidence to MPs on Wednesday about the regulation of pension schemes, said TPR had "no issues" with previous triennial valuations of the Arcadia pension scheme in 2007, 2010 and 2013 but had opened talks with the company and the pension trustees about the latest valuation.
To establish an ESOP, a company is going to need at least two lawyers, a valuation expert and a trustee for the program.
It points to an actuarial valuation carried out by the trustees of the USS in March – a process that weighed up the value of the scheme's assets against the amount needed to pay pension rights already accrued, finding a £8bn shortfall.
"The 2009 interim valuation being published today by the scheme trustees shows that the scheme's deficit has increased from £470m in 2008 to around £2bn," they said.
A week before he paid £1 for BHS, Dominic Chappell was being told by Olswang, his own advisers, that he might be on the hook for the full deficit in the pension fund; that the hole could be £500m; that a full actuarial valuation was not available; and that the fund's trustees might object to a sale, or demand more cash upfront.
The firm also said Retail Acquisitions had no direct access to the BHS pension trustees and that it had not been provided with an up-to-date actuarial valuation of the pension scheme while it was conducting due diligence on the retailer.
Tesco's deficit calculation is based on an accounting measure but next year the scheme will undergo a triennial pension valuation, which Richard Farr, managing director at Lincoln Pensions, argues could lead to its trustees asking for more than the £270m per year they already receive to fund the scheme.
The valuation had to be done by "a person reasonably believed by the trustee to be qualified to make it".
Ralfe said the company and trustees of the pension scheme will be agreeing deficit contributions as part of the 2014 actuarial valuation.
At the same time, the trustees agreed to delay by two years any likely demand for a stepup in pension deficit payments once the current triennial valuation of the black hole was formally confirmed.
