Pensions Bill

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken in this debate, including those who did not support my amendments. I thank the Minister in particular for his detailed reply. He gathered from the way in which I introduced my amendments that I was seeking clarification and restatement. Although it would have been preferable in the Bill, to be honest, I did not expect the Minister to accede to that request. I had not appreciated that in proposing those amendments I was denying the Government or a future Government the ability to set annual limits in future. That was clearly my error. What the Minister had to say on the annual limit, the lifetime limit and transfers was broadly satisfactorily. I am grateful to him for restating that and basically saying that those things will be dealt with in 2017. There is an open issue on stranded pots. The noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, made a good case, if it is backed by facts, for there being hardship or inequity in the current position. I hope that the Government are prepared to look at that. I also pay tribute to the noble Baroness for opportunistically raising the issue of inducements in the context of transferring out of defined benefit schemes. I do not believe that it is to do with buyouts. The issue of offering inducements to people to move out of defined benefit schemes has been seen by some companies as a solution to some of the problems in a non-buyout situation—as an alternative to buyout. Those have been around for some time. Normally, they are regarded by companies as rather expensive because the trustees make the companies pay rather a lot of money, in my understanding, but it may well be that the practice has moved on. As we all know, the pension scene is fast-moving and I do not pretend to be up to date on everything. If the Minister is prepared to take those issues up, he may want to see the letter that my noble friend Lord Trenchard received as an example of what may be not good emerging practice. I am grateful to him for taking that up. With that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 49 and 50 not moved.]