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Pensions Bill

I understand that perfectly well; the noble Baroness made that clear in her speech. I understand that there is value in that; I absolutely understand that there is value in clarifying the law. She makes a powerful point there that I understand. I am arguing a slightly different point, which is that if you are sitting in the trustees’ chair and have these tests in primary legislation, if you do not measure up to those tests according to the judgment of someone who does not like what you have done, you could find yourself on the wrong side of a court action stating that you were not properly living up to the expectations of legal provisions in primary legislation. The noble Baroness may be right; I may be right; all I am saying is that that is an extra thing to think about. You would need to get lawyers employed if you were a responsible trustee because trust law requires you to do all that. I think that the risk would be that there will be a bureaucratic legal dimension that would not be necessary if we did not pass the amendments. Speaking for myself, my heart is with the noble Lord, Lord Judd, but my head is with the noble Lord, Skelmersdale, and, I suspect, the Minister. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, was absolutely right to say that we need assurances about the consultation. It must be a properly thought-through discussion about exactly what that will entail. That is something that we will want to watch as the Bill goes through later stages. I just say to colleagues that I listened to Mr Tim Jones, who has a very difficult and significant policy job to do. His question always is: can his members afford what we are enacting in this House. In respect of the amendments, I do not think that they can.