Pension Schemes Bill: Motion relating to Lords Reason 88Q

Commons MPs voted 279 to 164 on 27 April 2026 to reject the Lords' stated reason for maintaining Amendment 88Q to the Pension Schemes Bill, advancing the Government's position in the ongoing dispute between the two chambers. The vote was one of several taken that evening during the Bill's ping-pong stage, the process by which the Commons and Lords send a Bill back and forth until they reach agreement. The Government motion passed comfortably, continuing a pattern of comfortable Government victories across multiple related votes in the preceding weeks. Amendment 88Q sits within the contested heart of the Bill: Clause 40, which gives ministers a power to direct pension schemes toward particular asset allocations. The practical effect of this vote is to keep that ministerial direction power in the Bill and reject the Lords' objections to it. Pension savers, trustees, and the wider financial industry are all affected, since the power would allow the Government to require pension funds to invest in specified asset classes, subject to conditions including a sunset clause ending the regime in 2035 and a restriction to a single use of the power before 2032. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted unanimously for the Government position, joined by Scottish National Party members and one each from the SDLP and Ulster Unionist Party. Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and the Democratic Unionist Party all voted against. No Labour rebels appeared in the tally.