Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

Amendment 39 would insert a new clause before Clause 11 to require the Treasury to lay a report each year setting out information about the operation of the saving gateway scheme. That would ensure that Parliament received regular reports on key indicators about saving gateway accounts. Subsection (2) of my new clause sets out the information that must be contained in the annual report; it essentially asks for take-up rates, drop-out rates and the costs of the scheme in terms of maturity payments to be set out. It also covers the number of providers offering saving gateway accounts, which will show whether genuine consumer choice has been available to account holders. Other information may well be useful to Parliament—for example, age or gender analyses of take-up or drop-out rates or the provision of material designed to deliver on a financial education agenda. Another area of information that would be desirable, but not necessarily easy to collect, is the persistency of saving after the maturity date. My amendment does not try to specify every possible item of data that might be useful but simply specifies the minimum amount of data. The amendment could no doubt benefit from a catch-all phrase calling for such information as the Treasury considers would aid an understanding of the saving gateway scheme. The saving gateway scheme has been designed with the benefit of the two pilots, especially the larger one. Nevertheless, I think that the Minister would agree that a national rollout will take place in a different environment and may well show different characteristics. There is the issue of the cost of the scheme, which at £100 million for the first three years, falling to £60 million per annum thereafter, is not completely insignificant. Every year Parliament will be voting that money and it seems to me that it will be important for Parliament to have some basic information on which it can judge the success or otherwise of the scheme and from which further questions or debates could flow. In another place, the Minister said that HMRC would provide some information, which would be considered in due course. That is not sufficient assurance that HMRC will provide adequate information, which is why I have tabled my amendment. I beg to move.