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Pensions Bill

My Lords, I have considerable sympathy for the points made, particularly by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, about the procedure for dealing with these amendments. I will go into more detail on the invoking of privilege on the financial assistance scheme when we come to those amendments, but I agree with the noble Lord on this. It is particularly unfortunate when there has been no debate in another place. That really makes a farce of democracy. On the substance of the amendments, as noble Lords will know from our previous debates, we on these Benches feel that the Conservative amendments are unnecessarily complicated. Simplicity is the key to sound pension arrangements. Like the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, we still await the promised review. I remember it being promised in the light of the Turner report—I had detailed negotiations with Mr Wicks at that time—on the simple question of whether the age of compulsory annuitisation should be substantially raised, which is our preferred option. As the Minister said, we are trying to encourage people to work longer. Given how much longer people are working and the substantial increase in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, we on these Benches believe that that age should be raised substantially and we expect and demand an answer on what has happened to the review.