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Pensions Bill

I understand the noble Lord’s position and realise where he was coming from. Perhaps I may deal with the point concerning retrospection. The Government’s statement on 14 April meant that the principal amendments to regulator powers would be introduced with effect from 14 April 2008. It was crucial that the Government’s announcement of their proposals did not prompt the kind of market behaviour that they were attempting to address before legislation came into effect. A Government, or future Governments, could make retrospective provision only if they had already announced their plans in the way that we did in April this year. The April announcements were in respect of the regulations that we are discussing now. The power is therefore not as wide as might first—