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Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 90A: 90A: Clause 30, page 14, line 11, leave out subsection (4) The noble Lord said: In moving Amendment No. 90A, I shall speak also to the other amendments in this group. This chapter introduces the provisions needed to establish the compliance regime for the new duties set out in the Bill. An effective and proportionate compliance approach is essential to the success of these reforms. Overall, our stakeholders recognise the need for an effective regime and for our approach to compliance. Before I begin, I acknowledge that we have tabled a number of amendments to the compliance provisions in the Bill, and it may assist the Committee in considering them if I explain briefly why this has come about. The Pensions Regulator emerged as the organisation best placed to deliver the compliance regime following a thorough assessment of options. That decision was taken at a relatively late stage, which did not enable the compliance powers to be fully tailored to the regulator's existing legislative framework or its intended compliance approach. Hence, many of the amendments that we shall consider today are minor technical changes to ensure a proper fit with the regulator's existing powers, clarity of meaning and accurate expression of the policy intent. I apologise for the fact that we are dealing with so many government amendments; I know that that does not make life as easy as it might be for the Opposition, in particular. If it would help to have a briefing from officials on any of them, that can be organised. It has also been necessary to propose minor amendments to the compliance provisions to ensure that they accurately reflect the employer duty provisions, enabling the regulator to respond effectively to all instances of non-compliance. In addition, some amendments have arisen from discussion in another place, where it was agreed further to consider certain issues raised about the compliance approach. In some cases, it has been necessary to table several amendments to achieve the same purpose. Where that has occurred, I hope that the grouping of the amendments will assist the Committee to consider them effectively. With that introduction in mind, I turn to the first such group of government amendments. They are technical amendments intended to improve the drafting of the Bill to ensure that there is adequate protection for individuals in all cases where an employer has breached its duties. The amendments fall into three categories. First, government Amendments Nos. 90A, 90K, 90M, 90U and 90V, 92B and 92C, 92E and 92G, relate to Clause 8, which gives individuals who do not have qualifying earnings the option of requiring their employer to make arrangements to enrol them into a pension scheme. As the compliance clauses are currently drafted, the use of the term ““jobholder”” will exclude workers who do not have qualifying earnings but are in pension schemes by virtue of Clause 8. Those amendments will ensure that, where Clause 8 applies, it can be enforced—in other words, they will enable the regulator to use a single compliance regime in respect of all workers. Secondly, as currently drafted, the requirements in Clause 34 for the employer to calculate the amount of contributions not paid to a scheme and to pay unpaid contributions do not apply to compliance notices in cases where that employer fails to auto-enrol a jobholder or induces a jobholder to opt out. The policy intention here is to have a mechanism that ensures that the employer makes up any unpaid contributions in those instances. For that to occur, there must be a recognised appropriate date on which contributions were expected to have been made, but where the employer has not automatically enrolled the jobholder, or has induced them to opt out, there is no scheme and therefore no relevant due date. The second group of amendments, Amendments Nos. 91D and 91E and 92E and 92F, ensure that the regulator can issue an unpaid contributions notice in cases of failure to auto-enrol and compliance notices for induced opt-outs. The amendments provide that compliance and unpaid contribution notices can specify an appropriate date from which contributions should have been paid. The amendments also enable the regulator to use a compliance notice for both the remedy of auto-enrolment failure and to recover missed contributions, rather than having to introduce a compliance notice followed by an unpaid contributions notice. Finally, Amendments Nos. 91A, 92F and 116A will ensure that the regulator can take enforcement action against an employer in respect of an individual who no longer works for them. That will ensure that compliance notices and unpaid contributions notices can be applied to all employers, past and present. For example, an individual may change jobs, but their original employer has failed to make contributions on their behalf. This set of amendments will enable the regulator to require the original employer to pay the outstanding contributions. I apologise for the length of my introduction, but I hope that my explanation has been helpful to the Committee. I beg to move.