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Pensions Bill

I thank the Minister for the explanation of the Government’s approach. I want to read that carefully in Hansard tomorrow. I entirely take what the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, said about loans on commercial terms. I suspect that there are definitions that I could lift from, for example, the National Loans Fund that would probably meet the point I am trying to make because I do not think the DWP would ever do anything as exotic as the kind of arrangements that are sometimes used to fund political parties—not, of course, my own. The key issue is transparency, which is what my amendments are directed at, because they involve no other parliamentary processes, as I made clear. I understand that there will be information in the annual accounts, but I do not think that is appropriate. If a transaction takes place in April 2008, I would not find out about it until, perhaps, July 2009 if the accounts were out very quickly, and quite possibly July 2010. This is the first time I have heard a Minister stand at the Dispatch Box and argue that useful information can be obtained from estimates. Estimates are extremely obscure documents read by a few civil servants. I am prepared to go away and look at the DWP’s estimates to see the detail currently being provided.