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Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 6A: 6A: Clause 2, page 2, line 12, at end insert— ““( ) Subsection (1) is not contravened if the jobholder is offered active membership of another qualifying scheme within the prescribed period but does not accept that offer.”” The noble Baroness said: This is a probing amendment, which would add a new subsection to Clause 2 providing an extra exemption from the clause’s main duty on employers. The amendment was suggested to us by the Law Society of Scotland, which, as the Minister will be aware, is a fruitful source of technical probing amendments. We have been debating the main thrust of Clause 2, which is to ensure that employers do not force jobholders out of qualifying schemes. A number of exemptions in the clause appear to cover cases where a jobholder becomes an active member of another qualifying scheme or asks the employer to remove him from the scheme. However, the clause does not appear to cover the situation in which an employer reorganises his pension arrangements and the jobholder, when offered the opportunity to join another qualifying scheme, decides to opt out of membership. Subsections (2) and (3) do not apply, because the jobholder is not remaining or becoming an active member. Subsection (4) does not apply, because the jobholder has not requested the employer to do anything or to omit to do anything in relation to the existing scheme. The jobholder simply declines to sign up to the new successor scheme. Why should this result in the employer getting into trouble with the Pensions Regulator and bringing himself within the enforcement provisions of the Bill? I beg to move.