---

Occupational Pension Schemes (Levy Ceiling) Order 2011

My Lords, I, too, am very pleased to support these regulations. The purpose of my intervention on my noble friend, for whose reply I was grateful, was to confirm that there was a principled basis for the slightly different, heterogeneous nature of the figures set, in that they all have their root in the ONS and are related to the principles of the particular component parts of these three orders or, to put it the other way round, that Ministers were not setting the rules in order to suit themselves or with the intention of saving money. Of course I accept that assurance. I should make it clear to the Minister, if it is not already self-evident, that partly because it came in the lacuna between my Front Bench service and today, I would not claim to be very ready to sit an exam on the pension protection scheme and am less familiar with it. In relation to the cap, which if it is raised is relieving as a measure, is there an impact on a significant number of individuals or on just a handful? I would be interested in that. The Minister knows that I am now, for the first time, a pension trustee. There is another point that he might like to say a bit about. There is concern, certainly debate, across the sector about the balance between the scheme levy and the risk-based levy and how that is to be conceived. That forms two categories. First, will he report to us on where we are on it? Secondly, given that he is, in a sense, setting limits under which the levy should be set rather than the level of the levy itself, which he said is the responsibility of the scheme, is it the case that he will stand back and allow that balance to be struck by the professionals? Does he have a view and what is the state of play on that?