Paul Rowen (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Rochdale, Liberal Democrat)

I just wanted to ask the Minister whether there is a discontinuity between subsections (1) and (2) and subsection (3), and between the compliance regime in the Bill and provisions in the Pensions Act 2004. In particular, I picked up on the word “inspector” in subsection (3). Everything before that point is talking about the regulator, the regulator requiring information and compliance notices being issued—all very light touch—and yet in subsection (3) the Bill suddenly goes back and uses parts of the 2004 Act, talking about regulators and entering premises, all of which implies a heavy gang from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs suddenly turning up to grab the records to find out why somebody has not been paying. That is at variance with what this chapter is attempting to do in terms of getting a light-touch compliance regime that is easy to operate and which has penalties that are easy to understand.

Rather than using sections of the 2004 Act, should we not ensure that those are amended to be more in tune with the rest of the Bill? Subsections (1) and (2) seem different from what has been proposed beforehand. Who are the inspectors? That is not the language that is used elsewhere in the Bill.

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