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Pensions Bill

We are comparing chalk and cheese. The stakeholder schemes were simply not designed in the same way. There was no concept of auto-enrolment or minimum contribution levels. They were like an optional extra to ensure that every employer offered something. They were not designed for anything other than that so it is very unsurprising that they had little impact on pension provision. They did not achieve any additional pension provision and did not much change what was already there—that carried on much as it had. We have to regard stakeholders as a nice idea that failed. To return to the amendment before us, the point that I want to make on all these amendments is that unless the delivery authority has these important issues fully in mind—as my noble friend Lord Blackwell said—against which the success or failure of the ultimate scheme will be judged, it is likely that it will give advice or prepare for implementation in a way which does not deliver the result that everybody wants to achieve.