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Pensions Bill

Clause 75, alongside Section 23 of the Pensions Act 2007, provides for the winding up of the authority once it has completed the task of setting up the personal accounts scheme. Amendment No. 113R would require the Secretary of State to provide for the wind-up of the authority by the end of 2013. As I have already said, and Tim Jones, the chief executive of the authority, has confirmed, we believe that a 2012 launch for personal accounts is achievable. However, we are still four years away from that commencement date and, as the authority has indicated in its report on its plans for delivery, at this early stage there is inevitably a degree of risk and uncertainty associated with a project of this scale, innovation and complexity. Furthermore, it is also necessary to consider the arrangements for the handover of the personal accounts scheme to the trustee corporation, which will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the scheme. The authority will develop a plan setting out the legal, commercial and technical steps that will need to be taken for handover to be achieved successfully. As part of that process, there will be a period during which the authority will need to work alongside the trustee corporation to facilitate the transfer of the infrastructure and processes the authority has developed. It is too early to say at this stage exactly how this handover will work. As the report from Tim Jones’s re-plan showed, the focus of the authority at the moment is on the design of the scheme. Of course, the views of the trustee corporation on handover will be extremely important. It would not be wise to pre-empt any decisions on this. I reiterate that the authority is a time-limited body and there is no intention that it should continue to exist after the trustee corporation has fully taken over the running of the scheme. However, I hope the noble Baroness can appreciate that we do not want to take the risk that the authority could be wound up before this has taken place. Government Amendment No. 139B is a technical amendment to correct drafting. It simply adds a reference to the subsections that Clause 75 removes from the Pensions Act 2007 in the table of repeals in Schedule 9. Therefore, I am not sure what the noble Baroness was concerned about. If she wants to expand on that, I shall see whether I can help further.