My honourable friend the Minister of State for Pensions and the Ageing Society (Angela Eagle) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I wish to announce to the House that I intend for contracting-out for defined contribution pension schemes to be abolished from 6 April 2012.

The Pensions Commission recommended abolition of contracting out on a defined contribution (personal or occupational) basis, as part of a programme of pension reforms.

Abolition is a simplification measure: contracting-out for defined contribution schemes is a complex issue and it has become increasingly difficult to determine that a scheme member would be better off by contracting-out of the additional state pension.

Section 15 of the Pensions Act 2007 provides for the abolition of contracting out from defined contribution pension schemes and, during its passage through Parliament, our stated objective was to abolish to this timescale.

It is important to give pension schemes due notice and the pensions industry will welcome this certainty over the abolition date.

My officials will continue to work to implement the changes in line with the above announcement in liaison with HM Revenue and Customs, the pensions industry and relevant public bodies such as the Financial Services Authority and the Pensions Advisory Service.