Speeches by Milne.

“Yes, it sounds rather unpleasant. We will think more about this subject, and I am sure we will discuss further, but I thank him for the clarification. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.”

“I beg to move amendment 262, in clause 20, page 21, line 12, leave out “£1,000” and insert “£2,000”. This amendment changes the value of small pot consolidation from £1,000 to £2,000. The purpose of this amendment is to accelerate the consolidation of small, dormant pension pots and to enable more pots to be included. …”

“I rise to support what my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay said. As has been emphasised, we are not talking about making things mandatory. It is about making things possible, because there have been cases in which managers take a rather narrow view of fiduciary duty and almost deliberately exclude other considerations…”

“I thank the Minister for his reply, and I thank hon. Members for their contributions. One thing we all absolutely agree on is the importance and centrality of this issue. If there is one area in which I feel the Bill could have gone further, it is this one. It is a scary thing to look to the future and see all the tren…”

“I thank the Minister for his comments. Over the coming weeks, as he will be aware, we will be discussing several amendments that relate to the same issue. It will be interesting to see whether we can reach a satisfactory solution. In the meantime, we will press our amendment to a vote, because we feel that the issue ha…”

“I beg to move amendment 3, in clause 9, page 9, line 4, at end insert— “(e) about the proportion of any surplus that may be allocated, or the manner in which it may be determined, for the purpose of contributing to the provision of free, impartial pension advice and guidance services for scheme members.” This amendment…”

“The purpose of amendment 5 is to ensure that regulations take account of the particular circumstances of occupational pension schemes that were established before the Pensions Act 1995. There is effective discrimination against certain pre-1997 pension holders. That is a long-standing grievance and has remained unresol…”

“I beg to move amendment 5, in clause 9, page 8, line 18, at end insert— “(2AA) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2A), regulations made under that subsection must include provision that takes into account the particular circumstances of occupational pension schemes established before the coming into for…”

“I thank the Minister for his response—”

“This morning I received a letter from Kelly Mariner, the manager of an independent coffee shop in my constituency of Horsham. She said: “Since the last Budget I have been unable to hire new staff and cannot grow my business. I am spending every day doing the job I love in front of the customers, but it means I can’t de…”

“Q The DWP argues that the funds are on the public balance sheet and therefore they object to using them for this purpose. Do you think that is fair, given that the funds were not acquired by the taxpayer? Michelle Ostermann: To clarify the word “using”, as I think it is important, the PPF is an arm’s length body and th…”

“Q Is there anything you think should or could be in this Bill that would help? Patrick Heath-Lay: I completely agree with what Ian just said. The review is the right way, and we need to look at the interaction between saving rates, state pension and the general economic conditions. One thing that we were concerned abou…”

“Q Auto-enrolment is a great success story. It has certainly got lots more people investing in a pension than would have done otherwise. However, the fact remains that large numbers of them are nowhere near on course to have a reasonable pension in retirement. Small pot consolidation helps, but we have to admit that it …”

“Q Pension scheme funding ladders can go up, and they largely have done in recent years, but also they can go down. Do you think that the proposals and the framework in this Bill for surplus extraction have the right balance of risk versus actually achieving the objective? Helen Forrest Hall: From a principles basis, ye…”

“Q But would you agree that that could have very stable returns—say a 5% return for affordable housing, or for a care home—because effectively the customers are also coming via the local authority? Councillor Phillips: There is great potential in all the activities that local government can do, but the fiduciary duty is…”

“Q Earlier, you were touching on possible investments in local matters, such as affordable housing, which have a strong and desirable social benefit. Could it not be argued that there are extra interests for a local investor? Basically a council could both own the houses and effectively supply the customers via its hous…”

“Q Do you think there is evidence that fiduciary duties are not interpreted in a way that optimises outcomes for pensions savers? If so, would you support any change in legislation to help? Christopher Brooks: Yes; I think a lot of schemes do not interpret it broadly, so they probably take things literally regarding fin…”

“Q Do you think that the finance industry has a clear understanding of how to apply its fiduciary duty? Do you think the Bill makes that clearer or muddies the waters, or somewhere in between? Patrick Coyne: I think that fiduciary duty is a powerful force for good. Across the Bill, this is about giving those trustees th…”

“Q From your perspective, what would be the main obstacles or difficulties in fulfilling the value for money requirement in the Bill? Dale Critchley: From a practical perspective, producing all the data. We need clarity in the regulations and clear definitions, so that everyone is producing the same data in the same way…”

“Q Do you think that the proposed value for money framework could have the unintended effect of causing excess caution or short-termism in investment decisions? If so, what mitigations would you suggest? Zoe Alexander: There will of course be metrics in the value for money framework that look at the longer term, and loo…”