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Pensions Bill

I believe that the formulation of the offence was put in subsequently and was not original, but we can test that. The Minister said that the Bill’s massive financial penalties—we have just debated them; certainly, we on these Benches are not convinced about them—had to be matched by a commensurate criminal penalty. That makes us wonder whether the scale of penalties for what is non-observance of financial obligations to employees deserves the regime being set up to deal with potential non-compliance. The problem is that, whenever a regime is set up for what the Government say is just one or two bad employers, it can inevitably be used against a wider number, especially by overzealous officials in organisations such as the Pensions Regulator, which in the first instance would have control over financial penalties. We will need to think carefully about how the penalties in the Bill are constructed and whether they are fair and proportionate. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 97 not moved.]