Clause 3 - Duty of employers to facilitate access to SaRA schemes
Rights of Savers Bill
3:00 pm
Stephen Timms (Minister for pensions, Department for Work and Pensions; East Ham, Labour)
If the right hon. and learned Gentleman allows me to finish my argument, he will understand my position.
The Turner commission, in recommending a model that is rather different from a stakeholder model, has decided on a different proposal on that front. The commission argues, with some conviction, that the model it proposes would provide a significantly lower burden than the stakeholder model. In weighing up the alternative attractions—the national pensions saving scheme, something that looks more like a stakeholder pension, or some other proposition—a good deal of attention must be paid to the impact on people who work for small businesses.
The hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Waterson) rather fancifully characterised his party as the party of small business. We must represent the interests of those people who work for small businesses. The fact that such a large number of them have no private pension provision at present is a significant weakness that must form part of this debate. I am sure that clause 3 is a sensible provision, but we shall need to look more at it as the debate proceeds, because we face a wider challenge with pensions. This is an interesting subject.