Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

It is not normally my habit to interfere in Bills run by my fellow Front-Benchers but, as I moved the original amendment to the Pensions Bill on the lifeboat scheme, I feel duty-bound to point out, especially to the noble Lord, Lord Newby, that, as he will remember, the Government have been pushed kicking and screaming at every stage into increasing the amount of money available to the now 125,000 pensioners who lost some or all of their pension expectations. Originally, it was thought that there were some 60,000 of them, and the Government decided that £400 million over 20 years was quite enough money to lay aside. Since then, that has been ratcheted up, not least in the Budget last year. There will be an order on exactly that subject in this very Room on Thursday, which will bring a total of £2.3 billion into the FAS pot. The indefatigable Dr Altmann, who is the spokesman and, arguably, leader of the Pensions Action Group, has pointed out, first, that that is still not nearly enough and, secondly, that what is needed is for the Government to accept the moral result of the ombudsman’s report of some two years ago. My noble friend mentioned the investigation that is going on into the use within the FAS scheme of those residual assets that are coming into the scheme. A report was due in July. I still have not seen it—and of all people, I would be the most likely in your Lordships’ House to do so. The most recent news is that, from somewhere within DWP, money is available. I do not know whether your Lordships saw an article in today’s Daily Telegraph, in which a Mr Bob Soar, who lives in Mr Hain’s Neath constituency, said that he had been urged by the Work and Pensions Secretary to lobby the Treasury. Mr Soar is quoted as saying, "““Mr Hain said he had sent some personal recommendations to the Treasury””—" which may or may not include the results of this report; we do not know— "““and he indicated that there was money available””." Just what is going on between DWP and Treasury Ministers?