Speeches by Milne.

“I thank the Minister for his reassurance, but urge him to keep this in mind. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.”

“I beg to move amendment 268, in clause 58, page 67, line 34, leave out subsection (a) and insert— “(a) that, as at the date of the application, the financial position of the ceding scheme is— (i) not strong enough to enable the trustees to arrange an insurer buy-out, or (ii) not affordable for the next 36 months follow…”

“I will speak mainly to new clauses 32 and 33 in my name. There is a lot to like in the Bill, but it is at its weakest where it touches on rural areas. That is a great shame, because if we could solve transport, we could also solve the rural productivity problem. Economic inactivity is nearly two-and-a-half times higher…”

“I will speak to new clause 4 on targeted investment vehicles. Its purpose is to empower the Secretary of State to establish or facilitate targeted investment vehicles for pension funds. Overall, the pensions industry is supportive of the Bill, as are the Liberal Democrats, but some sections have expressed concern that …”

“Renewable energy schemes—particularly community energy, which I am a big fan of—are a very good addition, so we would support that.”

“To add briefly to the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay, I emphasise that with new clause 3 we are taking a non-prescriptive approach. It says that “the Secretary of State must have regard to the need to identify and mitigate barriers faced by new market entrants in the defined contribution pensions mark…”

“I beg to move amendment 4, in clause 32, page 30, line 12, at end insert— “(4) The Secretary of State must, at least once every three years, review the amount for the time being specified in section 20(2) to consider whether that amount should be increased, having regard to— (a) the effectiveness, and (b) the benefit t…”

“I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.”

“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…”

“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 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…”

“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 thank the Minister for his response—”

“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 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…”

“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 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…”

“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…”

“I think you have answered all my questions already. We have tabled an amendment, and I would really appreciate your input on whether we could improve it or argue around it between now and when it is raised in Committee. Roger Sainsbury: Thank you.”

“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…”