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Pensions Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for giving me the opportunity to bring enlightenment to your Lordships’ House on this matter. Clause 59 enables the Secretary of State to make regulations that would require any person to keep prescribed records for up to six years and to provide those records to the regulator on request. Where a company has been wound up, its records pass to the control of the liquidator, to be retained for as long as insolvency legislation requires. The provisions regarding record keeping by insolvency practitioners are found in the 1994 insolvency regulations. Under these regulations, following a voluntary winding-up, the records may be destroyed by the last liquidator of the company one year after the dissolution of the company. Under Regulation 16(1), in a court winding-up, the records may be destroyed at any time with the authorisation of the official receiver. I reassure noble Lords that there is no intention to make any regulations that would be inconsistent with these regulations. We are working with the Insolvency Service to make certain that the regulations are fully consistent with existing insolvency provisions. Where a corporate entity has been wound up and ceases to exist, any prior obligation that it would have had to keep records would cease to have effect and the insolvency regulations would become relevant. I hope that that response was what the noble Baroness was seeking and is clear enough for her. There is no intention of imposing a second obligation on anyone else in those circumstances.