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Pensions Bill

My apologies, Mr. Deputy Speaker. We are putting in place the biggest package of pension reforms undertaken in 100 years. All the measures that we have taken and all the alterations that we are making in state provision relating to, for instance, equality for women and carers, the Pension Protection Fund and the Pensions Regulator constitute a major package of change. A keystone of that package is the restoration of the earnings link. We have made the importance of that clear in legislation: we have taken the unprecedented step of establishing in law that the Chancellor is obliged to do it. We have also specified 2012 as the year in which we seek to do it. I accept that there is a caveat relating to affordability. My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, Central is aware of the issues that the Chancellor will need to consider. I know from my hon. Friend's background on the Treasury Committee that he has had to examine the detail of those issues, and he knows as well as others that they must be considered in the round. It is easy to be flippant about what could be done if something or other were the case, but the position must be seen as a whole. There will be winners and losers—there are ways in which the taxpayer will have to fund the change—and we need to act with a degree of care. However, I repeat the point made by my hon. Friend which I began my speech by endorsing: the restoration of the link is a crucial part of this package. I ask my hon. Friend to let us introduce the package as a whole, because it provides a long-term guarantee that pensioners will be given a better deal, provided not by them but by this Government and what they have done.