Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 29: 29: After Clause 33, insert the following new Clause— ““Publication by Secretary of State (1) The Secretary of State shall lay before each House of Parliament— (a) any relevant proposals about personal accounts within the meaning of section 33; (b) any guidance issued under subsection (6) of section 33. (2) The Secretary of State shall publish any matters laid before Parliament in accordance with subsection (1) in such manner as he considers appropriate.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, the new clause returns to the issue of transparency about the development of the personal accounts scheme. In Committee we debated a series of amendments that sought to delineate the matters the delivery authority had to have in mind as it formulated its advice to the Secretary of State or prepared for implementation. They covered hugely important areas, such as the effects of personal accounts on existing pension provision or the need to avoid the equivalent of mis-selling of personal accounts to people who will not get enough back, or who should use their money on things such as paying off expensive credit. Another example was the amendments just moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Turner of Camden. The Minister’s answer then—as it was a moment ago—was that all that would be covered by the next Bill and was inappropriate for this Bill. That answer, in effect, means that we may have to wait for a year or more before the next Bill becomes an Act. That is a year or more with no transparency about the crucial tasks the delivery authority will undertake. We may be able to debate the content of the next Bill, but it does not move forward any transparency about what the delivery authority will be working on. All we know from the Bill is that the authority can do anything it thinks appropriate in relation to personal accounts but has no other guidance in the Bill. We know that the authority will be concerned with relevant proposals about personal accounts, which the Secretary of State will give them, but there is no provision in the Bill for Parliament, or indeed any other interested stakeholder, to be aware of what those relevant proposals amount to. In addition, the Secretary of State may issue guidance to the authority about the discharge of its function. However, there is no provision for anyone other than the authority to know what is in that guidance. In Committee, the Minister said the guidance could be administrative in nature. If that is the case, I am sure there is no harm in publishing it. The Minister will be aware that the real interest lies not in administrative matters but in the substantive development of personal accounts. The Prime Minister has made much in his opening days about the need to restore trust in politics and, by extension, in Government. We agree with that; the past 10 years have left public trust damaged. The Minister must know that obsessive secrecy—doing things behind closed doors and not informing Parliament and others about the development of crucial policies—runs wholly counter to the need to rebuild trust. My amendment would require the Secretary of State to lay before each House both the relevant proposals to be worked on by the delivery authority and any guidance issued under Clause 33(7). No parliamentary approval would be required, so the work of the delivery authority would not be held up, but Parliament would be given the opportunity to seek appropriate debates on the issues being passed from the Secretary of State to the delivery authority. The amendment would also require publication as the Secretary of State thought fit. There are many interested parties outside Parliament who also need to be informed, and many of us throughout the course of the Bill have received representations from many such parties representing very diverse interests. If the Government are serious about rebuilding trust, let them start today by accepting my amendment. I beg to move.