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Pensions Bill

I do not know quite where my hon. Friend got the date of 1 April from, but 2012 has always been the year in which we have envisaged the scheme starting, and we continue to do so. That is the plan and the proposal, and it is what Tim Jones has been signed up to deliver and designed plans to implement. I acknowledge the hon. Member for Eastbourne's point that the project is very big and has all sorts of implications, and in reply may I say that the plan is to start to deliver in the course of 2012. Let us see, when we get a little closer, what precise month or day in 2012 it will be. It has always been envisaged that this will not be a big bang, and that the scheme will be phased in over a three-year period, with employers starting by making 1 per cent. contributions, then making 2 per cent. contributions in the following year and then 3 per cent. contributions. The scheme will not suddenly appear on one day in 2012 and all be in place. It will be a phased-in project. The question is when we are going to start the reforms, and the answer is 2012. That is what we envisage, but I accept some of the hon. Gentleman's points. There will always be issues that we must examine, not least when the Bill finally becomes law, and all of them will have to be factored into the management of any project date. As far as we are concerned, though, Tim Jones has done as we asked and drawn up plans for delivery in 2012. That is when we envisage that the proposals will come into force. The second element of this group of amendments and new clauses relates to the funding arrangements for PADA, but first I shall say something about the Reuters story, which appears to derive from something said by a person claiming to have worked as a consultant at PADA for a time. The £500 million figure seems to be based on the Pensions Commission's assumption in respect of the loan needed to set up the scheme, an estimate that preceded two White Papers on pension reform, the Pensions Act 2007 and this Bill. We now know much more about the scheme, but we cannot say exactly how much it will cost until its full design, as well as the procurement of the services underpinning it, has been completed. Moreover, we cannot even begin those processes until this Bill has received Royal Assent. This legislation authorises PADA to do the job for which the hon. Member for Eastbourne wants me to provide figures as to cost but, until PADA has started talking to the people who will provide its IT and other infrastructural requirements, it will be very difficult to know the costs involved. In any event, the size of the contracts means that anyone who had a detailed breakdown of the cost figures would be at a considerable commercial advantage. Because of that, I am happy for the hon. Gentleman to talk to Tim Jones, as long as the conversation is in appropriate confidence. We do not want to read about it in the papers afterwards, but I am sure that we can trust him in that regard.