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Pensions Bill

I thank the Minister for his response. He said that the PPF is trying to build confidence. What the PPF is doing is convincing the employer community that it is a very expensive route to dealing with the issue of scheme insolvency. That opinion will be expressed by almost any employer with a defined benefit scheme who has received this year’s fees demand and has been looking at what is happening to the costs in this area. There is potentially an issue here, which is why there is an incentive to look at other options. One of the points I sought to make is that I hope that the department’s mind is not closed because it is too close to the PPF. The fund is the department’s own invention, so of course it is rather protective of it, but I was hoping that the Minister would demonstrate that he is open to open market solutions. I say that because we believe that open market solutions often produce innovation and thus dynamism in a given situation. I completely accept that there are big practical issues to be dealt with, as the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, said. I was not advocating the BrightonRock proposals but the use of market-based solutions as an alternative to state-based solutions. That may indicate a doctrinal difference between us.