Clause 175 - Income

Part of Finance Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:00 pm on 15 June 2004.

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Photo of Mr Howard Flight Mr Howard Flight Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Economic Affairs, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury 3:00, 15 June 2004

As I ever, I thank the hon. Gentleman for his suggestion. He may well be right. The issue comes up in the Bill because we are moving from a regime in which tax approval was the issue that controlled what people could invest in to a system in which registration has nothing to do with it. As far as I am aware, the Government have not had anything to say about the other areas of law that may be used to address the issue. That is why I made the comment that to some extent this is a probing amendment.

There is a fundamental issue about whether the matter is dealt with by the Department for Work and Pensions or by trustee legislation and so on. Do we want to move to a complete free-for-all for all forms of money purchase pension investment? Would it not be prudent to have a liberal protective regime, whether introduced in this Bill or in other legislation?