Clause 15
Pensions Bill
2:15 pm
Mike O'Brien (Minister of State (Pension Reform), Department for Work and Pensions; North Warwickshire, Labour)
An employer would be able to obtain from an employee by reason of employment the sort of information that the hon. Gentleman described. The basic information about who the person is, where they live, and what their national insurance number and date of birth are is the sort of basic information that in any event ought to be in the possession of most employers. They would get that information and they would have that information.
What we seek to do, however, is to prevent a situation arising where the employer would be able to say, “Before I can automatically enrol you and get you involved in my pension scheme, you have got to give me a vast array of very detailed information about your background”. Some employees might not wish to give that information and it might be utterly irrelevant to the particular scheme. It is possible that some schemes might be created to help employers who do not wish to operate in a bona fide way with automatic enrolment.
Almost all employers would approach this in a straightforward and bona fide way. However, if there were any suggestion that employers required from an employee information that they already had, or would normally have for the purposes of employment, merely for the purposes of joining a pension scheme, we would want to ensure that they would not be able to require that additional information. I hope that with that reassurance, and the reassurance that the employer would be able to ask reasonable questions in a normal way but not be able to use requests for information to frustrate pension membership, the hon. Gentleman will feel able withdraw his amendment.