New pension Bill flagged

This year’s Queen’s Speech, delivered on 15 November, outlined plans to introduce a new Pensions Bill and a Climate Change Bill.

The Pensions Bill, which is due to be published before Christmas, will establish a delivery authority to set up the system of personal accounts proposed in this summer’s white paper on pensions reform. The system has also previously been referred to as the National Pensions Savings Scheme.

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions, said: "[The delivery authority] is going to be set up to get everything in place that needs to be there to get personal accounts up and running."

He also confirmed that private sector expertise would be involved in the delivery authority.

The Climate Change Bill, meanwhile, could impact on company fleets. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stated that the Bill would allow for "enabling powers to put in place new emissions reduction measures".

Terry Bartlett, managing director of vehicle leasing and fleet management company Inchcape Fleet Solutions, said: "It is becoming abundantly clear fleets which opt for high CO2-emitting vehicles will pay the penalty."

However, Andrew Cope, managing director at Zenith Vehicle Contracts, added it would be wrong for the government to solely target company car drivers. "This is a bigger issue than company cars. It is about how we put pressure on manufacturers to deliver more fuel-efficient engines and change behaviours."

Employee Benefits has been asked to point out that the article Payments in Lieu of Notice, published in the November issue, contained some subbing errors. For a full version of the original article please contact [email protected]