Baroness Noakes (Con)

My Lords, my Amendment 88 proposes to limit the power in Clause 34 to increase the size of the pot classified as small so that it is limited to £10,000. I welcome the fact that the power to make regulations under Clause 34 has to be consulted on and that they will be subject to the affirmative procedure, but we know that Parliament has close to zero power to alter the content of regulations, so it is important that the guardrails around the power are sufficiently strong. There is widespread acceptance in the industry that there should be consolidation of small pots of £1,000 or less. I understand that there are already around 13 million pots of that size, and that is predicted to rise to over 30 million in only a few years’ time, so this is clearly an important issue. There is a concern, however, that the Clause 34 power could be used beyond its core purpose, which is to ensure that multiple small pots do not accumulate within pension providers and that individuals do not lose track of their own pension pots. It is one thing to use the power for sensible tidying up, but it would be quite another if the power were used to drive further consolidation, for example, which would not necessarily be in the interests of either savers or pension providers.