My Lords, I thank the Minister for a very comprehensive reply to the issues raised in the debate. I think there may be one or two specifics that he will follow up on in correspondence, and that would be helpful.
I think the Minister said that the response to the consultation on the secondary annuity market would be published next month—I hope I caught that correctly; if it is not next month, perhaps he might write to me and say when that will take place.
I thank my noble friend Lady Drake for her, as ever, wise words on pensions, focusing on the risks and complexity of the secondary market system. She made the telling point that if the problem with the annuity market was the creation of those annuities in the first place and whether people were getting value for money, the situation could be compounded by overlaying a secondary market. That is a key issue to address.
The noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, made the point about the growth of DC schemes and the lapse of DB schemes, and that is right. I think we are now in the position where there are more members of DC schemes than there are of DB schemes. Of course auto-enrolment and the benefits of that will accelerate that as well.
Having said all that, and given the hour—I have been here for only one amendment but am conscious that noble Lords have sat through a very busy day— I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.