Lord Livermore (Lab)

My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords for their contributions to this debate. Amendments 35, 37 and 40, tabled by the noble Baronesses, Lady Neville-Rolfe and Lady Altmann, and the noble Lord, Lord Altrincham, cover the impact of the future Act on pensions adequacy and on pension-saving behaviour and participation. As I have already set out, the Government agree on the importance of transparency, and a number of documents have already been published that set out the impacts of this measure. I turn to the principled point raised about the impact of this policy on pensions adequacy and savings behaviour more specifically. As we discussed in Committee, salary sacrifice existed in the 2000s and early 2010s, yet there were falls in private sector pension saving during that period. The key factor that has led to an increase in saving in recent years is automatic enrolment. As a result of that, over 22 million workers across the UK are now saving each month. Although we all share a commitment to improving pensions adequacy, many groups at highest risk of undersaving, including the self-employed, lower earners and women, are not the most likely to benefit from salary sacrifice. Only one in five self-employed people saves into a pension but they are entirely excluded from salary sacrifice. Low earners are most likely not to be saving, but higher earners are more likely to be using salary sacrifice. Many women are undersaving for retirement, but many more men use pensions salary sacrifice. The pensions tax relief system remains hugely generous and there remain significant incentives to save into a pension. The £70 billion of income tax and national insurance contribution relief that the Government currently provide on pensions each year will be entirely unaffected by these changes. Amendment 38, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, would require the Government to lay before Parliament a formal review of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s supplementary forecast information release of 5 February 2026, and specifically its analysis of behavioural responses by organisations to the provisions in the Bill. The OBR’s economic and fiscal outlook and its supplementary forecast publication set out how behavioural responses have been considered in certifying the costings. A summary of these behavioural assumptions was also published in the policy costing note accompanying the Budget. The supplementary forecast information was drawn from analysis and data—