Clause 42
Pensions Bill
9:30 am
Andrew Selous (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
May I also welcome you back to the Chair, Mrs. Anderson?
Conservative Members called for proper sharing of information between the regulator and HMRC in earlier debates because we wanted it to be as easy as possible for employers to provide the required information to the authorities. We thus completely support the principle of new clause 14 and understand the reasons why the Minister wants to delete existing clause 42. He is right, however, that I will ask him about security, in particular with regard to data-sharing. Will there be secure transmission? Will the data be encrypted when they are passed from one organisation to another? This is extremely personal and private information about how much people have paid, how long they have worked somewhere, when they started, their home address, and so on. In the light of recent events, we seek as much reassurance as possible from the Minister.