---

Pensions Bill

This is the fifth or sixth of a large group of government amendments that we are due to look at today. Many of them are eminently sensible, but as my noble friend Lady Noakes has just said, we have queries on some of them. Incidentally, by my count, the number of amendments that the Minister’s advisers hope we will get through by the end of the day is 77. I suspect that they are a little erroneous in that view, but we shall see. Amendment No. 89 is supposed, as the Minister said, to allow the deductions to be made from the first pay day after the auto-enrolment. However, the amendment does not actually say that; it says, "““at any time on or after the date with effect from which the jobholder is to become an active member of a scheme under the arrangements””." If it said what the Minister thought it said, I would be perfectly happy, but "““at any time on or after””" does not give me that confidence.