I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply, particularly when he said that the Treasury would be keeping its mitts all over the service. I assume that that was meant to be reassuring.
I note that he said that he thought the BBC had got the story wrong today about flat-rate pensions, and I listened with great care to his explanation, which we will need to reflect on very carefully. It is vital that people are clear about what their pension income will be when they are making plans about their whole-pot retirement income. I hope that when I read his response, it will be clear that that information will be available to people well in advance of them taking advice from the CAB, the Pensions Advisory Service or whatever source they may choose, so that they can rely on the figures provided to them by the Pension Service.
4 pm
The report out today identifies a sum of £35 million. I accept that it is impossible to be very accurate about proposed take-up, but it is still not clear to me where in the range between 2.5% and 92% the £35 million is placed. I welcome the assurance that wherever it is placed, no one will be denied access to pension advice through lack of resources for those providing it.
The Minister said that the training will be “adequate”. We are seeking an absolute assurance that it will be of the highest quality. I recognise that Citizens Advice deals with very many complex issues. It will often have specialists in its offices who deal with particular aspects and services. Depending on the volume of uptake of pension guidance, we want to ensure that everyone within Citizens Advice who is expected to provide guidance is of the highest quality—not just of adequate quality—and understands all the implications of what the Minister rightly admitted is a very complex landscape to which we are moving.
There are still a number of issues to be considered. As I said in my opening remarks, we need to reflect further on the information that has been provided by the Treasury today. With the proviso that we may continue this debate at a later stage, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.