Lord Ashcombe (Con)

My Lords, very briefly, I support Amendments 6 and 22 from my noble friends Lord Mackinlay and Lord Fuller. As we have heard, the practical application of the £2,000 cap per person must be clearly defined in primary legislation. Leaving such a significant distinction—whether the cap applies to an individual or to each job they may hold—to secondary legislation would create profound uncertainty. The administration of salary sacrifice schemes is already complex. It is unreasonable to expect each employer to know whether their part-time employees have additional jobs elsewhere, let alone what they earn in those roles. Many of these additional jobs may be sporadic or seasonal, with even the employee unsure of when work will arise or what their pay will be, particularly if it is commission based. It is difficult to believe that the Government intend individuals with multiple jobs to track their own cumulative salary sacrifice across different employments; nor, I suggest, is it remotely feasible for HMRC to monitor such arrangements effectively. From a practical standpoint, this amendment is simply common sense. I turn quickly to those amendments that address the affirmative procedure. As I mentioned earlier, it is widely recognised that pension legislation is, at best, complicated, and particularly important to individuals when they retire. It is only right that changes in legislation that concern so many people and so much capital should be subject to proper parliamentary scrutiny. This is not a political issue but one of immense importance; it should therefore be subject to affirmative procedure.