Pensioner Trustees and Final Payments Bill (Hansard, 13 June 2003)

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

I was quite taken aback to find that I would have four or five minutes to introduce the Bill. This is the second, not the first, time that I have brought it forward, but I hope that today I can generate support among hon. Members to take it further. However, before I attempt to do so, I should like to thank all those hon. Members who have supported me during those two attempts.

The majority of the trade union movement supports the Bill. In particular, Derek Simpson, the new general secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union side of Amicus, and the general secretary of Amicus support the Bill. In addition, I must thank the Coventry Rolls-Royce retired members group, particularly the chairman and secretary, and the British pensioners group in Coventry, which, over the years, have provided tremendous support, not only for the Bill but in a number of other areas. I was quite surprised when, a couple of months ago, I attended a Rolls-Royce retired members meeting in Coventry, and roughly 400 people turned up on a Friday afternoon. That says something about the interest in and the need for the Bill.

The Bill simply means that retired members can nominate and elect a trustee of the various pension fund schemes throughout the country. That person would have the usual role of a trustee, but would take a special interest in relation to decisions that could affect any benefits that the members would receive.

We all know about the mis-selling of pensions, certainly under the previous Government, and 1 drew attention to that the last time that I spoke in the House a couple of weeks ago in the pensions debate. However, we must also recognise that two or three years ago the Government set up a new financial services regulator. That will obviously take time to have an impact, but one interesting statistic is that, in redressing some of the issues in that regard, about £11 billion has been paid back in compensation. That gives an idea of the magnitude of that problem.

I know that the Bill is only one step in a particular direction. Pensions, occupational pensions and issues that affect old-age pensioners in general terms are a far bigger area than I can deal with today. Nevertheless, it must be addressed and it is vital that the Bill receives the support that is necessary for it to complete its passage. I do not have time to go through all the arguments, but I ask hon. Members to support the Bill—