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Pensions Bill

I have a couple of questions. I absolutely support the case that has been made, for the reasons that I explained when I spoke to an earlier group of amendments. I have real concerns about the impact that the provisions will have on micro-businesses, and nothing that the Minister said earlier about looking at them as an industry-wide group of employers assuaged my fear. As the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, who so ably opened the debate, said, the economic context has certainly changed. The report carried in the Guardian financial pages suggests very clearly that things are shifting again after a period of relative stability. It would be foolish for us to set up these changes without having some pause for thought about the much less benign economic climate that we are moving to. She is absolutely right to think clearly about that now. Do the Government have a timetable in mind for these transitional provisions? Obviously the provisions are triggered to some extent by the enactment of Clause 19, but the Government must have a calendar of events which will unfold year by year as the transitional periods are triggered. Can the Minister say more about the cost-sharing scheme? Such a scheme makes perfect sense. A tiny firm may be able to show that the provision it is trying to make will be facilitated by extra time and that it is trying in good faith to work with the grain of government policy, but that two years is not enough. It is not clear exactly where in the clause small businesses are provided with the opportunity to opt in over a transitional period. Somewhere in the regulations that flow from this primary legislation there should be flexibility that gives scope and room for manoeuvre to tiny family businesses that are acting in good faith, trying to do what they are required to do and willing to deploy their facilities for their job holders and employees, but which will find the costs too high when they implement the provisions in this clause simply because they do not have the time to make adjustments. If the economic circumstances are to be much tougher for small businesses to cope with then it is entirely right that we should think now about those circumstances. It is entirely reasonable to anticipate that that is exactly what might happen in future.