Member

Again, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, who I regret is not in her place, said that if we had not wasted five days debating this Bill, we could have dealt with those other things. That is disingenuous, because the amendments that I moved on day 2 did tackle those things. To be fair, the noble Lord, Lord Cromwell, came up with a far better amendment on participation rates than the one that I introduced. On a retirement age, the noble Earls, Lord Devon and Lord Kinnoull, had a far better amendment than my suggestions for retirement. Other suggestions on attendance rates were supported by the noble Lord, Lord Burns. Those suggestions were made, but “We do not want them in the Bill because it is too complicated and unnecessary”.