May I echo what the hon. Member for Ryedale said about the hon. Member for Eastbourne’s proposal? The exposition of the arguments made by the hon. Member for Eastbourne for conditional indexation was very compelling.

We started our consideration of the Bill with evidence sessions and, as the hon. Member for Ryedale said, it is clear that the idea of such sessions and of having a dialogue with stakeholders has developed. In this case, it has proved its worth in that organisations that were initially lukewarm about conditional indexation have now accepted that it has a role to play.

We are all here for one purpose and one purpose only: to ensure that people’s pension provision is improved and developed. We have spent a lot of the time talking about personal accounts and expressed some concerns about what might happen if employers decide to switch from their own contributory pension schemes to personal accounts. We know that there has been move away from defined benefit to defined contribution schemes. Here we have an opportunity to provide an alternative that guarantees to employees a better form of pension than they could get. We are not prescribing a route, or saying that that is what must be followed, but providing an option.

As the hon. Member for Eastbourne said, it is important that the new clause would affect new members, not existing members. It would allow a company to look at the way in which its pension scheme was developing and the associated risks, and, if necessary, enable it to share some of that risk. It would be far preferable for there to be some risk sharing, if that resulted in people getting a better income in retirement, rather than a straightforward choice between one scheme or another, which is the situation at the moment.

This excellent new clause considerably enhances the scope of what we are seeking to do in the Bill. So far, the Ministers have listened and been prepared to make amendments, when necessary, in the light of our discussions. I hope that the Minister will accept new clause 5 and realise the benefits that it offers to the community that we all seek to serve.