Speeches by Garnier.

“So do I.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Q I have one very last question, if I may, going back to the mandation piece and the evidence that we heard from Helen Forrest Hall. The mandation piece is a reserved power, with a sunset clause in, I think, 2035. I have discussed with another member of this Committee how that reserved power will encourage pension fund…”

“Q When you talk about the wider public finance implications, I completely get it; we understand that there is a lot of debt and all the rest of it. The bit I am struggling with is that this is a fund that is set aside for exactly this type of thing. It worries me—and I hope it worries other colleagues on the Committee—…”

“Q Yes, but there is a serious issue here, which is that you are now the Minister for Pensions and in a position to be able to do something about this. We can look back on the last 14 years and have that conversation—let us get that out of the way—but here is your opportunity to resolve this problem. Torsten Bell: In st…”

“Q Minister, thank you for coming to give evidence—we have a long few weeks together. I will start with the evidence we heard from the Deprived Pensioners Association and the Pensions Action Group. I was rather surprised to hear that a fund that had been put aside, worth £14 billion, has now been taken into the Governme…”

“Q This is tricky, though, is it not? Because there is no geographical definition of those six pools, Cornwall could, as I mentioned earlier, find itself investing in Leeds. That would be lovely for you in Leeds, but it would not be so great for people down in Penzance. Rachel Elwell: Border to Coast, if we do have thos…”

“Q On surplus extraction—because there are various different ways you could do it, one of which is a payment holiday or a contribution holiday for local authorities—do you worry that there could be surplus extraction by one form or another, that could reduce the surplus on these funds, thereby increasing risk of liabili…”

“Q Do you think there is a risk that mandation could come in on the LGPS by subtle, behavioural outcomes rather than necessarily through directive outcomes? Rachel Elwell: I can understand why the Government would want to have a backstop power to direct pools, because the LGPS is significant—it is one of the top 10 glob…”

“Q Thank you very much, and thank you for coming in this afternoon. I do not know how much of this you have listened to, but there are a lot of worries about mandation coming in on pension funds. Of course, this does not include the local government pension scheme, because this is about defined contribution pension fund…”

“That is very helpful, thank you. I am very conscious that other Members will almost certainly have questions, but I must say that I entirely agree with you that a sum of money set aside for compensation should not be brought into the Government’s balance sheet.”

“Q Thank you very much for the work you are doing on behalf of pensioners—it is important. Mr Sainsbury, the PPF has some £14 billion in reserves. Could you share with us the main arguments for and against using that to benefit PPF and FAS scheme members? Roger Sainsbury: In the light of Terry’s extended life history, I…”

“If I remember rightly, the Bill allows for the detail to come in afterwards, so we will have a bit of work to do when this is all over. Thank you very much.”

“Q Chris, following on from the points about derisking and all the rest of it, we heard from Phoenix a little earlier about the value for money framework. Everybody seems to agree that the framework is a good thing because it is going to drive better performance and all the rest of it, with one exception, expressed by P…”

“Q One of the original ideas of the last Government was to have a lifetime pot, whereby an employee would pay into a fund, but it was deemed by the industry to be quite difficult to administer, because as an employer you would have to be dipping bits into different pots. What was put up as an alternative was a magnetic …”

“Q On this derisking thing, a number of investment managers over the years have pointed out to me that the rules were brought in as a result of Maxwell absconding and taking a lot of money out of his pension fund. Deficits are now placed on to the balance sheet of the host company, which means that the inclination of th…”

“Q A previous witness, Michelle Ostermann, made two really interesting related points. One is that, having derisked the UK pensions industry, there is not the appetite to make some of these investments. The second is that other countries are much better at leveraging their pensions industries in order to promote economi…”

“Q Obviously, the most controversial part of the Bill is mandation—or rather, reserved powers for mandation; I am corrected by the Minister, who is flashing me interesting looks. Why do you think it is that Canadian pension funds are investing more into UK assets than British pension funds are—without being mandated? Ch…”

“Q So while we were all running around like headless chickens trying to figure out what was going on, you were saying, “We told you so. We knew that was going to happen.” Michelle Ostermann: It is definitely something that was on our radar. When we build the investment strategy for an open DB scheme, such as those I des…”

“Q I must ask a question that is perhaps a self beat-up, if you like. There was a disastrous mini-Budget a few years ago under a different Prime Minister—of course, at the time, we got rid of our bad leaders. Did you stress test a scenario such as that? Michelle Ostermann: Not here in the UK, but as you can tell by my a…”