In the short time available to me, I wish to focus on the issue of protected persons, which was raised in the debate by the hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham), who also has many constituents employed in the nuclear industry. The electricity sector
will be affected, as well as many other sectors. My hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) has tabled new clause 7 to address those affected in the railway industry, who are protected persons as a result of a privatisation that happened 20 years ago. Other industries affected include energy, water and mining. It is believed that some 52,000 people in this position will probably be affected by the Bill.
Many of my constituents have been in touch with me on the issue. They tell me that the Government have still not responded to the consultation on whether to exempt protected persons from changes to their pension schemes to reflect higher employer national insurance costs from April 2016. I will focus not so much on the detail of new clause 7, which would help those in the railway industry, or new clause 37, which would help those in other sectors, but on the principle they both address.
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This is not a historic issue relating to 52,000 individuals. As parliamentarians, we need to ensure that we maintain the promises made, but we need to address, too, privatisations that are taking place now. For example, the privatisation of Royal Mail took place only this month; indeed, there is an active industrial dispute in that sector relating to pensions, as well as pay and conditions. The Government need to be absolutely clear about this principle. As parliamentarians, we have been here time and again, trying to protect the interests of those affected by privatisations and to obtain assurances, from Governments across the political spectrum, on individuals’ contractual rights at the time of privatisation.
The Government’s proposals will tear up promises made to individuals and we need to think carefully about what that means. In the railways pensions scheme, we already have individuals—for example, Jarvis Facilities workers—for whom the insolvency of privatised companies has meant that they are suffering detriment. Jarvis went into administration in 2010 and my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington has been actively involved in making representations on behalf of individuals affected. That is the type of scenario we are dealing with. A number of private railway companies—whether in the railways themselves or London underground—have become insolvent and gone back to the public sector. It is easy to see many scenarios in which work forces will be placed in a situation where there is an insolvency or something similar, and their pension may suffer detriment.
We have promised individuals that protection will be given to them. Those assurances were backed up by statutory provision when the railways were privatised 20 years ago, and when the energy sector and other sectors were privatised. We promised—this Parliament promised and Governments promised—that those individuals’ pension rights would be no worse under privatisation. They trusted those Governments and the promises they made. There was much negotiation at the time about the detail of the legislation. MPs representing their constituents were concerned that the law being put before them was not strong enough to give them the protection they were being promised.
The reality is that Governments made promises to individuals. The Minister should give an undertaking, on behalf of this Government, to stick by them and not renege on those promises, and to ensure that those who rely on the protections offered are able to continue to
feel satisfied that, if things were to go wrong, the provisions will be there and those individuals will not suffer detriment. I therefore ask the Minister to look seriously at new clause 7 and new clause 37, which we will be considering later, to ensure that protections remain in place.