Pensions Bill

My Lords, I support the amendment. I explained briefly at Second Reading why I favour the principle of an independent pensions commission, and more extensively in Committee when I moved an amendment which had very much the same effect as the amendment in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Oakeshott and Lord Fowler, and the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross. As the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, said, so far from cost being an argument against the establishment of a commission of this kind—I suspect that that is part of the reasoning both of the government Front Bench and of the Conservative Front Bench—there is every probability that if we were to have such a commission, enormous amounts of money would be saved. In Committee, I asked the Minister if he would tell us what the cost of the Turner Commission had been and if he would contrast that with an estimate of the cumulative cost of the series of miscalculations, misjudgments, errors great and small which have beset public policy on pension over many years. I recited a litany of those errors. There can be no question that £1 million or £2 million to pay for the cost of a standing commission on pensions which would furnish the Government and all of us with authoritative and timely advice on emerging pensions issues would be a worth while investment indeed for the nation. I quibble a little bit with the proposition from the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott—which is not in the wording of the amendment but was in his speech—that the commission should contain party-political nominees. I am not entirely enchanted by that. I think that the important thing to do is to have people of recognised independence on an independent pensions commission and people of recognised authority—people of the calibre of the noble Lord, Lord Turner, Professor Hills and Ms Drake. No doubt the commission could indeed be more numerous than that commission was if a case were to be made for it. It is surprising that the Government should be resistant in that the Government are attracted by the principle of being advised by panels and commissions of independent experts in other contexts. Monetary policy has already been mentioned but I rather think that the Government are attracted to a body of independent experts to advise them on environmental issues and climate change issues. That seems entirely sensible. It strengthens the resources of expertise and advice and is a stimulus to us all in policy thinking. So I very much hope that my noble friend will, after all, be willing to accept this amendment, if only to save this Government and future Governments from the pressure and temptation which is always there to fudge and prevaricate and to pretend that there is not a problem until it is a little bit too late and the problem has manifested itself and then there is a political crisis and it is so much more difficult to deal with it. I think that this would make for good government. It would save a very great deal of money. It would also save a great deal of human unhappiness which arises from the consequences of errors of judgment in pensions policy.