New Clause 31
Pensions Bill
2:45 pm
David Laws (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Work & Pensions; Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
I said this morning that a couple of dogs had not yet barked in the Committee. This is one of the two dogs—the other was the issue of public sector pensions. I was tempted not to raise this particular issue because it has not been fundamental to the debate on the Bill and was a relatively modest part of the Pensions Commission proposals. Yet when we consider how much money is at stake in pension tax relief and how devastating the Pensions Commission’s second report was in its criticism of the Government on this matter, it would seem a little odd to complete our debate without at least touching upon this issue. In that report, the Pensions Commission concluded that pension tax relief is costly, poorly focused and not well understood. It is also true—and I anticipate that we will hear this from the Minister in a few moments—that the Pensions Commission said that it would be quite complex to change pension tax relief and did not make recommendations for immediate changes.