COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 12 July 1995)

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 183 to 186 en bloc. I wish to speak also to Amendments Nos. 188 to 195, 197, 204, 268, 269, 274 to 277, 280, 281, 283, 319, 322, 329, 403 and 404.

This is a group of amendments which I can only call miscellaneous. Unkindly, your Lordships may think that they are a bit of a ragbag collection, but they are tidying up and other amendments to ensure that the Bill will work. I shall deal with one or two of the more important ones and I am happy to answer questions about any of the others.

1749 Amendment No. 184 extends the power to modify certain provisions to cover the whole of Part I of the Bill. The reason is so that we can modify the provisions to make it possible for industry-wide schemes to meet them. We discussed industry-wide schemes in previous stages of the Bill.

We always intended to ensure that industry-wide schemes should be able to continue with arrangements which are perfectly sound and sensible. But the schemes have differences that need to be catered for in secondary legislation. It has now become clear that the powers in Clause 110 do not go far enough. One particular problem arises because of features in certain types of scheme, such as the electricity supply pension scheme and the Railways Pension Trustee Company Limited. Because of these features, the existing regulation-making powers would not be sufficient to make the necessary modifications, and the amendment will allow us to achieve what was always our intention.

Amendments Nos. 183, 274 and 275 ensure that there is a definition of the word "enactment" which can apply throughout the Bill. We have a specific definition for the purposes of Clause 106, but no general definition. Amendment No. 183 removes the definition from Clause 106, and the other two amendments insert a general definition at Clause 157.

Amendment No. 269 removes Clause 154 because its purpose is the same as the new clause inserted by Amendment No. 185. This is designed to ensure that the relevant provisions in Part I of the Bill apply in the same way to public service schemes as they do to private sector schemes. Those running public service schemes will be required to comply with the obligations of Part I which are appropriate to these schemes. They will be liable to sanction by OPRA if they fail to do so.

Amendments Nos. 186, 188, 189 and 191 to 195 clarify a number of definitions of terms used in Part I of the Bill. The most significant of these is the definition of "accrued rights". This matter was raised by my noble friend Lord Buckinghamshire. We acknowledged how important it was to make sure that we had a proper definition of accrued rights. We consulted various pension organisations and we now believe that we have what we need. These amendments provide it.

Amendment No. 268 inserts a new clause to enable public service pension schemes to recover any additional administrative costs that they incur from investment firms as a result of the mis-selling of personal pensions. This will put public service schemes in a comparable position to private sector schemes. We believe that this provision is necessary to ensure that occupational pension schemes run for civil servants, teachers, the NHS and local government employees should be able to recover the costs so that they do not fall on scheme members or taxpayers. I beg to move.