Pensions Bill

I shall certainly try to help the noble Lord. Clause 49 prohibits certain forms of employer behaviour during the recruitment process that indicate that the job on offer is conditional on the applicant agreeing to opt out of a pension scheme. Although we do not expect the vast majority of employers to try to screen out job applicants in this way, an effective compliance regime must be in place to manage the risk that some might try. Clause 50 gives the Pensions Regulator the power to issue compliance notices where it believes that a contravention of the prohibition in Clause 49 has occurred. The proposed amendment would prevent the regulator issuing a compliance notice requiring a current or past contravention to be put right. We recognise that there will be circumstances in which a contravention of the prohibition has happened and there is nothing that the employer could do retrospectively to put it right. In those situations, we want the regulator to be able to issue a penalty notice to penalise and deter such behaviour in the future. However, there may be other circumstances in which the regulator might want to require employers to put right what they have done wrong. It would be useful for the regulator to be able to issue a compliance notice specifying what the employer needed to do and by when to remedy the situation or to prevent it being repeated. For example, the regulator might require an employer to change a specific job advertisement or application form that is in contravention of the prohibition or to issue a retraction. The clause gives the regulator the power to issue such notices. I hope that that has clarified matters for the noble Lord and that he appreciates that it will not be possible in all circumstances for what has happened retrospectively to be put right, but that there will be circumstances where it can be the appropriate remedy. That is why the clause is structured in this way.