---

Pensions Bill

I am afraid that there is a misunderstanding about the task that the financial assistance scheme has had to undertake, which the PPF or whoever else was tasked with running it would have had to undertake. The FAS has had to go through hundreds of schemes to see whether they are eligible; it has had to set up a new IT system; and it has had to get data from the trustees about exactly what people are entitled to and compare that with FAS. That is why there has been a significant up-front cost. That work is now largely complete, and we are paying everybody whom we are in a position to pay. Everybody who has asked for initial payments is being paid. There is no delay in FAS; the delay is in requests for initial payments. We need schemes to come forward and ask for those. I will return to that matter later in my speech.