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Pensions Bill

I rather wonder whether the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas of Winchester, regrets the absence of her noble friend Lord Oakeshott. I have to say, with no disrespect to her, that I rather regret it. Even though this is a probing amendment, I cannot support it. From a narrow point of view, it appears entirely sensible: the trustees will, by trust law, have to consider the best interests of the membership. So why not the authority, as we have to call it now? That ignores an important difference between the two bodies; the trustee corporation is specifically set up to handle personal accounts and only personal accounts. In contrast, the authority is being established not only to set up personal accounts but to give advice and assistance to the Secretary of State on the proper functioning of auto-enrolment in general. On these Benches, we are very much aware that personal accounts, while better than the complete lack of provision currently available for many in the target group, are considerably less generous than the majority of private pensions that we are hoping will qualify for auto-enrolment. It would therefore be in many cases counterproductive and deeply inappropriate for the delivery authority to promote membership of personal accounts ahead of membership in other qualifying schemes—a point that I sought to make a little earlier in our debates this afternoon. Yet that is what this amendment could lead to. It is cheaper to administer a large scheme than a small scheme. Given the impact that administrative charges will have on the eventual return, it will certainly be in the interests of members with personal accounts for the authority to engage employers to use personal accounts rather than other qualifying schemes. Your Lordships may consider that to be rather reductio ad absurdum, and perhaps it is, but it highlights effectively my wider point that we should not allow the authority to establish a nationalised pension system. It is to manage the implementation of auto-enrolment. I believe that this amendment would add nothing to that duty and might very well hinder it instead, which we do not want to happen.