---

Pensions Bill

I thank the Committee. It is always a pleasure—and not just for political reasons—to get such warm support for an issue on which we all recognise that injustice is being done to people who can least afford to lose their modest savings, as my noble friend Lady Dean so eloquently put it. I am glad that the Minister respected the fact that the Committee fully supports finding a way to move forward on this issue without necessarily circumscribing the way in which he should do it. I also thank my noble friend and the staff who have worked hard on this issue—this is essentially an HMRC rather than a DWP issue, which I think is why it was uncovered relatively late—for the positive and constructive response. However, does he expect, or wish for, the trigger of a probing amendment on Report so that he can tell the House what the arrangements will be? I realise that the Summer Recess is approaching and that he will be exploring a lot of other issues, but I am sure that he has no intention of allowing this to be lost in the short, long or distant grass. None the less, I hope that before I withdraw the amendment he can advise me whether he would welcome a probing amendment on Report so that we would all know whether the Government have managed to move the debate forward over the summer.