Pension Schemes Bill

My Lords, I have some sympathy with the thrust of Amendment 1, under which my noble friend seeks ...

My Lords, in opening for the Government on this, I welcome the comments of the noble Lord, Lord B...

My Lords, can I probe the Minister on his response? It seemed that he was praying in aid the guid...

If I might first take the noble Lord up on one point, what is being proposed by the noble Lord, L...

If I may presume to comment on my noble friend’s amendment, the Minister made the comment that it...

I take the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Drake, is making on this issue, but it is clear th...

If I may come back on that point, setting out the options available on retirement is one thing, b...

Clearly, any form of guidance is not going to be appropriate for ever on specific issues. The gui...

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his comprehensive reply on the new clause. The whole ...

Moved by

Lord Bradley

2: Clause 8, page 4, line 43, at end insert—

“( ) A statu...

My Lords, Amendment 2, which is in my name and that of my noble friend Lord McAvoy, flows from th...

My Lords, I have considerable sympathy with the amendment before us, not least because the chair ...

My Lords, for the purposes of all of today’s business on the Bill I refer to the interests which ...

My Lords, I confirm to the House and to the noble Lord, Lord Bradley, that the measures under the...

I come back to the point on which I was seeking clarification. If the affirmative procedure is us...

The noble Baroness will be aware that the negative procedure will still provide a measure of prot...

I push the point as a courtesy because I care about establishing collective benefit schemes. I am...

That would be an exceptional procedure. It is important for the industry and pensioners that we c...

I thank the Minister for his explanation, for his more wide-ranging response to the report of the...

Moved by

Lord Bradley

3: Clause 9, page 5, line 2, leave out “or managers”

My Lords, the three amendments in this group stand in my name and in the name of my noble friend ...

My Lords, I rise to support and speak to Amendment 10 in particular. I expressed the view at Seco...

I thank noble Lords who have participated in the debate on these amendments. The amendments in th...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. I want to be absolutely clear on the point that he ...

I shall deal with the second point first. As the Minister knows, there will be a contractual obli...

On Clause 37 and the Minister’s assurance of the robustness of the independent boards, why is he ...

This is probably the main difference between the approaches of the Government and of the Oppositi...

Once again, I am grateful to the Minister for the comprehensive nature of his reply. I am sure th...

Moved by

Lord Bradley

4: Clause 9, page 5, line 23, at end insert—

“( ) A statu...

Amendment 4 stands in my name and in that of my noble friend Lord McAvoy. Again, it flows from th...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bradley, for his comprehensive coverage of Clause 9. I sha...

Again, I am grateful to the Minister for his comments, and I welcome the fact that before Report ...

Moved by

Lord McAvoy

5: Clause 10, page 5, line 36, at end insert—

“( ) A statu...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 5 and 6. They follow recommendations made by the Delegated ...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, for introducing the amendment. First, I confirm th...

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his lucid explanation of the clause and his response to my ame...

Moved by

Lord Bradley

7: After Clause 11, insert the following new Clause—

“Sca...

The amendment is in my name and that of my good colleague, my noble friend Lord McAvoy, who will ...

Perhaps I might pose a number of questions about this amendment. My noble friend the Minister or ...

If I might comment briefly, as the amendment says, any merger has to be in the best interests of ...

My Lords, I have sympathy with the thrust of my noble friend’s Amendment 7. Scale can be very imp...

My Lords, I thank noble Lords who have participated in the debate and I welcome the opening remar...

I thank the Minister for his response to the amendment and I welcome the comments made by the nob...

I appreciate that the noble Lord was not intending to caricature my response and that I have cut ...

I am grateful to the Minister for that clarification and I certainly was not intending to misquot...

Moved by

Lord McAvoy

8: Clause 14, page 6, line 29, leave out “may” and insert “must”...

My Lords, I shall also speak to Amendment 9. I do not have the reputation of having an unlimited ...

My Lords, I support Amendment 8, which would require trustees or managers of a collective benefit...

My Lords, I thank noble Lords who participated in the debate on this amendment. The Bill sets out...

It is probably just a bit run down, but there we are. I am grateful to the Minister for that very...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. As I indicated, the consultation is not just with t...

I am grateful for that clarification, but I still think that, although obviously I do not know ho...

Moved by

Lord Bradley

11: Clause 21, page 9, line 3, leave out “may” and insert “must...

My Lords, I will not labour the points that we have already made regarding affirmative resolution...

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. I apologise that I keep referring to noble Lords oppos...

I am slightly confused. The Minister seems to be saying that there would never be a circumstance ...

I am happy to confirm that. I believe that I indicated in response to an earlier amendment that t...

Again, I am grateful to the Minister for his response and clarification. From this side of the Co...

Moved by

Lord McAvoy

13: Clause 25, page 10, line 35, at end insert—

“( ) A sta...

My Lords, Clause 25 gives the Secretary of State the power to require the trustees or managers of...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for moving this amendment. Clause 25 contains a power to require...

My Lords, once again I thank the Minister for a very full exposition of what was envisaged in the...

Moved by

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

14: Clause 27, page 11, line 20, leave out first ...

My Lords, the package of amendments in this group falls neatly—I hope—into the category of minor ...

I am grateful to the Minister again for his explanation of the government amendments, which I acc...

I am most grateful to the noble Lord, and I commend the amendments to the House.

Moved by

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

15: Clause 27, page 11, line 20, leave out “any s...

Moved by

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

17: Clause 32, page 12, line 35, after “document”...

Moved by

Lord Bradley

19: After Clause 35, insert the following new Clause—

“Co...

My Lords, I draw attention to the wording of this amendment because I am sure that it will be wel...

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Bradley, for moving this amendment. I will say a little ab...

I welcome the Minister’s response to the request for an annual review. It was certainly not my in...

Moved by

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

21: Clause 37, page 14, line 40, leave out “instr...