§ Mr. English (by Private Notice)asked Mr. Speaker whether he will arrange for Members of the House to receive independent actuarial advice upon his letter of 30th November relating to contracting Members out of the new State pension scheme?
§ Mr. SpeakerThe Managing Trustees of the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund who were appointed by this House to administer the Members' Pension Fund have examined the merits, or otherwise, of contracting out of the additional pension element of the new State scheme in accordance with the provisions of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975 and are satisfied that by so doing it is in the best interests of Members. If the hon. Member wishes to pursue this matter, I draw his attention to paragraph 7 of the notice which accompanied my letter which states how representations can be made either to the Managing Trustees or to the Occupational Pensions Board.
§ Mr. EnglishI am not sure, Mr. Speaker, whether you are to be congratulated upon joining the ranks of employers. I always thought, until now, that my employers were my constituents. The point at issue is whether we have the same rights as employees. We have given employees rights of consultation so that they can get independent advice to determine whether it is worth their while to be contracted out or contracted in, and we need such independent advice ourselves from an actuary before we can make the same decision.
§ Mr. SpeakerI can only advise the hon. Member to take this up with the managing trustees, who are all senior Members of the House.