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Pensions Bill

When the Minister gave me the opportunity the other day to quiz the chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, that was most certainly one of the questions that I asked him—whether he believed that this scheme would indeed come into operation, as the Government fully intend, in 2012. His answer was in the affirmative. The Minister has just repeated that message. I thought that we were going to start with a big bang; I had not appreciated that the Government intend a rollout of employer duties, whereby, by definition, there will be different categories of worker enrolled in the scheme at different periods. The Minister has now told me that this is to help the 1.3 million employers that the Government believe to exist. They intend, therefore, to stage by business size. It might also be staged by the type of existing scheme, if any. I can think of various possibilities. That is extremely helpful and clears up what was obviously a misunderstanding in my mind. I am grateful to the Minister. Clause 11 agreed to. Clause 12 [Qualifying earnings]: