Pensions Bill

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for taking part. I am sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, thinks that six months is too short. I feel that a 12-month backward-looking report which the Minister said was on offer—an annual report that by definition looks backwards—is nothing like a substitute for keeping an eye on what is going forward. I do not believe that it is a job-creation scheme for accountants, because if the delivery authority is doing its job properly, it will have long-term projections which are constantly kept under review. This is just a matter of transparency, yet again. The system needs to be—and we all want it to be—up and running by 2012. There is high potential for it not to be plain sailing. It may not be as complicated as the ID card scheme, but transactionally it may be more complex as it has to cope with enrolments, people changing employment, and people investing in different kinds of funds and changing them over time. Transactionally, it is quite a complex scheme. If it starts to get out of control, it may need more money to fix it, and who will meet that cost? Will the state meet it or will it be a burden on the scheme? Or it may not be delivered, which we do not want. Transparency— keeping a view on how this is developing—is one of the important ways in which one can help it to be delivered. However, I recognise that there is no support for the amendment this evening, which is a great pity because it would have been nice to test how many of the 70 are still in the House. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 34 not moved.]