Written Evidence to be reported to the House.
Pensions Bill
1:30 pm
Neil Carbery: You are absolutely right. This is a key constituency that we have never previously reached, as a nation, in terms of pensions saving. It is the corner shop, the hairdresser—businesses with limited capacity for regulatory time. That is why we were very keen when talking to DWP—there are some very stringent penalties in the Bill. The most important thing that we have learned through the process of the last few years, looking at areas like the national minimum wage, is that the pensions regulator, as the designated authority, will have to take an approach that is based first on support. The first step here has to be support and help to comply. The pensions regulator must have the budget to be able to do that. A sliding scale of penalties after that is perfectly acceptable to businesses—no one wants to defend rogues. But, from our point of view, we are looking at making sure that the first time the regulator steps into your business to say, “Why is something wrong here?”, it is not bashing your door down; rather it is saying, “You are not doing this”, “How can we help?” and “What information do you need?”