HL Deb 16 December 1957 vol 206 cc1197-8

5.12 p.m.

THE EARL OF HOME rose to move, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that the Government of India (Family Pension Funds) (Amendment) Order, 1957, be made in the form of the draft laid before this House on the 20th of November last. The noble Earl said: My Lords, I do not think your Lordships expect me to detain you for long on this Order which I have to move for your Lordships' approval. The objects of the Order are two. So far as the Government of India (Family Pension Funds) Order, 1936, is concerned, the Order extends the powers of investment of the Commissioners of the Funds by including in them the power to invest up to 30 per cent. of the funds in the equities of companies with a good dividend record, to buy leasehold property, and to invest in a wider range of fixed-interest securities, including those of public bodies and public utility companies in any part of the Commonwealth. Sir Stafford Cripps did something of this kind, I believe, extending the range over which the Commissioners could invest at an earlier date, and this is a further and I think a reasonable extension. At the same time, the opportunity has been taken in this Order to amend the 1936 Order so as to enable the Secretary of State to appoint Commissioners for periods of less than four years. The present stipulation that appointments should be of exactly four years has proved to be inconvenient in practice. I beg to move.

Moved, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that the Government of India (Family Pension Funds) (Amendment) Order, 1957, be made in the form of the draft laid before this House on the 20th November last.—(The Earl of Home.)

LORD OGMORE

My Lords, we on this side have no objection to the Order, but it is a sad commentary on the times that Government stocks are no longer regarded as being the proper or more profitable ones for Trust Funds of this kind, and that the Commissioners have perforce to go out into the much more risky and hazardous seas of equities in order to get a reasonable return. That is one of the conditions of our time which affect the Indian pensions as well as everything else. That is all we desire to say.

On Question, Motion agreed to: the said Address to be presented to Her Majesty by the Lords with White Staves.

House adjourned at a quarter past five o'clock.