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Pensions Bill

I will see how much I can deal with now but I am sure that I will end up writing in any event. On the issue of the employer contribution, you have to go right to the start of the Bill, to Clause 1(1), which defines a jobholder as an employee—or now, a worker—who works or ordinarily works in Great Britain and who is aged at least 16 and under 75. That is the key to the employer contribution. You then have to look at Clause 6(3). If people are active members of an automatic enrolment scheme, then you get the requirements for the employer contribution for that scheme if it is going to be an automatic enrolment scheme to satisfy the quality tests and the qualifying scheme test. That is the route into it for someone aged between 16 and 75. It is different for someone who does not have qualifying earnings. Someone who does not have qualifying earnings is not, within that definition, a jobholder. I shall have one more go about how it works for someone who opts to be enrolled under the age of 22 and then becomes 22. He or she is enrolled in a qualifying scheme and therefore when it comes to issues of automatic enrolment the employer is relieved of the obligation to take further action by Clause 3(3). Subsection (2) is the provision that makes the employer undertake prescribed arrangements by which the jobholder becomes an active member, because subsection (2) does not apply if the jobholder was an active member of a qualifying scheme on the automatic enrolment date. Therefore, there is no need to do anything if they are already in the scheme. I hope that has clarified matters. However, if it has not, I am very happy to write to the noble Lord to make sure that it is very clearly understood.