Personal Accounts Delivery Authority Winding Up Order 2010

My Lords, I thank the noble Lords, Lord Taylor and Lord Oakeshott, for their contributions. I took from each that they were supportive of the broad thrust of what we are trying to achieve, but they enunciated particular concerns, which I shall try to allay. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, that the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, should not feel outgunned by his noble friend Lady Noakes. I am sure that she would have given me a hard time. The noble Lord did equally well. He also said that he would not be exercised by the passing of PADA because its activities would be inherited by NEST. That is not completely correct, because PADA’s role was to advise the Government as well as to prepare for the setting up of the scheme. NEST’s role is to run the scheme in the interests of members. That is why the PADA order pushes assets and obligations in two directions, one to NEST and the other to the Secretary of State. The noble Lord asked when the employers and member panels would be up and running. That will happen by the time auto-enrolment starts in October 2012. The noble Lord said that, should he and his colleagues have the opportunity to implement such reforms, they would look to do so before 2012, with early enrolment into existing schemes to create greatest value—I think that that was the point made by the noble Lord. It is reassuring that others share our view on the critical importance of automatic enrolment; however, it is not possible automatically to enrol workers into personal pensions outside the employer duty, as it would not be consistent with European consumer directives, the distance marketing directive and the unfair commercial practices directive. Our work with our delivery partners confirms that implementation of the employer duty cannot be achieved safely or effectively before 2012. An integral part of the implementation process is the protection offered to individuals through the compliance regime, and we need to make sure that this protection is fully in place for individuals who automatically enrol. That simply will not be possible before 2012. Thereby there are practical difficulties, although the noble Lord would not in any event expect me to concede that he would have the opportunity to test those.