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Pensions Bill

If my officials have a detailed answer to that before I sit down, I am sure that a note will wend its way to me from the Box. If it does not arrive by the time our discussion on this amendment concludes, I will write to the noble Baroness. I think that it will be covered in our response to the consultation document, but to the extent that it is not, I will ensure that she receives a full reply. I do not have the specific information that she seeks. We do not believe that personal accounts will represent unfair competition to other savings products, because it will be designed as a basic, defined-contribution pension scheme, with limited investment choice and no added insurance features. Further, the restriction on transfers and a limit on contributions will target the scheme appropriately and allow scope for the rest of the pensions market. More widely, pre-existing pensions products should also benefit from the introduction of automatic enrolment and minimum employer contributions. We intend that the personal accounts scheme be self-financing in the long term through money recovered from membership charges. However, there will be a need to provide for the set-up in the short term. I am sorry to sound like a gramophone record, but financing further forward will be a matter for the detail of the second pensions Bill. My honourable friend James Purnell has made it clear that initially the funding of the authority will be grant in aid. We will discuss the extent to which any of that initial phase becomes rechargeable, depending on whether it is for the cost of the initial advice or for setting up and implementing the scheme, as part of the second Bill. On the point made by the noble Baroness, I can now say that the ABI’s analysis has been taken into account in our deliberations. We have also received analysis from the NAPF and Which? What that led us to conclude will, I hope, be apparent very soon.