Pensions Bill: Committee Stage Report

This is a report on the Public Bill Committee Stage of the Pensions Bill. It is designed to complement Research Paper Pensions Bill (RP 11/52), which covers in more detail the background to the Bill and the debates in the House of Lords. The provisions most debated at Committee stage were:

• Clause 1, which accelerates the increase in the State Pension age (SPA) to 66. At Second Reading, the Government had said it stood by the revised timetable in the Bill but would work to “get the transition right”. A Government amendment tabled on 13 October would cap the maximum increase in the SPA at 18 months relative to the legislated timetable – See Library Standard Note SN 6082 ‘Pensions Bill – State Pension age update’ for more detail.

• Changes made by Part 2 of the Bill to the legislative framework requiring employers to automatically enrol employees into a qualifying pension scheme.