Pension Protection Fund (Pension Compensation Cap) Order 2007

That is correct. The noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, asked about the number of schemes. In my introduction, I said that there were 147 schemes covering a total of 102,000 scheme members in an assessment period at the end of February 2007. A further 80 schemes are expected to enter an assessment period in each of the next two financial years, with 65 of them transferring into the PPF by the end of 2007-08. I do not have information on the question about deficits and assets relating to those schemes, but, again, it is readily available. I will write to the noble Lord with whatever information is meaningful. The noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, asked for some clarification on administration costs. I shall try to provide that. Whether or not depreciation is included in the headline operating figure is just a presentational matter. To recap, the planned operating costs, excluding depreciation, for 2006-07 were £12.4 million, projected to be £14.2 million next year. The planned depreciation in that is £0.3 million for the current year and£1.1 million projected for next year. Obviously there is a smaller amount of depreciation in the current year because there is presumably a build-up—an acquisition—of assets over that period. So far as the department’s costs are concerned, the department bore some of the setup costs and is entitled to recover those from the PPF. It seeks to do that, and is doing that, over a three-year period. Those costs are actual setup costs, including a depreciation element, so again there are two components, but it is being recovered over three years. The final year of recovery is 2007-08, so that bit of the administration costs will fall out of the equation for the year 2008-09. The noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, asked about the impact of private equity buyouts on all this. It is an interesting but quite involved question, as I am sure he knows. The issue is whether it will affect the solvency of employers. One would not think that it should. The thrust of a private equity buyout is to get better use of the overall assets. There is a broader debate about the consequences of private equity. In some respects we know that private equity brings some liquidity into markets and focuses on efficiency, but there are clearly risks associated with that for employers. I am trying to see the correlation and impact of private equity on pension funds, which are separately funded assets held by trustees, and how the existence and involvement of private equity might have an adverse consequence. Perhaps I could reflect on that.