Pensions Bill

My noble friend Lord Fowler likened this group of three amendments to three cars. He described the first as an old banger. I would describe the second as a left-hand drive. Funnily enough, as I passed through Paddington station this morning, I noticed that a car was being raffled. On closer inspection, it was left-hand drive, so I did not enter the raffle because I did not think it would be much good to me. The third car—the amendment tabled by my noble friend—I could drive, in part because I believe that one of the things that we have done well in recent years is pre-legislative scrutiny. I agree with my noble friend that one of the things we have always done badly is post-legislative scrutiny. However, I am not sure that this is a job for a commission, and, anyway, the job should be very much wider than just this Bill. Part of these amendments cover an amendment that I tabled, which requires regular reports on changes in life expectancy, and I appreciated the support that I got from around the House—with the sole exception, of course, of the Front Bench opposite, but that is only to be expected on occasions such as this. I am afraid that, as far as matters of detail are concerned, that is as far as I am prepared to go at the moment. I described the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, as a left-hand drive car. That amendment concerns me because it presupposes that there will be frequent changes in the pensions system, which will do nothing to restore public confidence in Government policy. Incidentally, did the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, not refer to it as ““flying on auto-pilot””? The Minister will not like that remark. We do not want to make an already complex system seem even less accessible by potentially frequent changes. We have already had a lot of complicated amendments to pensions law, and I fear that a permanent commission specifically tasked with finding yet more ways of tweaking pensions would be counterproductive. I fear that I cannot go any further at this moment.