Speeches by Garnier.

“Perhaps it is exciting for those who enjoy dry reading. We in the Opposition have no objections. Amendment 36 agreed to. Amendments made: 37, in clause 29, page 27, line 30, leave out— “a relevant person, other than the FCA,” and insert— “the small pots data platform operator or the trustees or managers of a relevant p…”

“I am not entirely happy with the Minister’s comments. I am slightly surprised, and I thought he might have listened a bit more carefully. We absolutely understand the economies of scale. A large, £25 billion pension fund can do amazing things. We are 100% behind that. We have not disagreed with that at all. However, I …”

“I beg to move amendment 248, in clause 38, page 41, line 4, leave out from beginning to end of line 9 on page 43. This amendment would remove the ability of the Government to set mandatory asset allocation targets for certain pension schemes, specifically requiring investments in UK productive assets such as private eq…”

“Amendments 248 and 249 talk about removing mandation—something I spoke about when we debated clause 38, so I will not cover those amendments other than to say that it is something we feel strongly about. Amendment 275 concerns mandation with regard to the water industry. It comes as a result of an announcement from the…”

“This is rather strange, because I wanted to intervene on the intervention, but I hope that my hon. Friend will come on to the various other things that we have proposed. For example, we have proposed looking at the Maxwell rules, which are driving the incentive of pension fund trustees to invest in gilts because of the…”

“I thank the Minister for talking through the amendments. We understand the intention behind them, but we are worried that, as can often be the case, there may be an unintended consequence: the creation of a closed shop for master trusts. We do not want suddenly to find that, in trying to make a transition pathway, we e…”

“I completely understand that. The question is, what is plausible? One man’s plausible might be another man’s impossible. That is the bit that we are worried about: how to ensure that someone is not squeezed out who otherwise could be in it.”

“I beg to move amendment 257, in clause 41, page 53, line 7, at end insert— “117GA FCA guidance (1) The FCA must issue guidance on contractual overrides. (2) Guidance on contractual overrides must include— (a) when and how overrides can be used; (b) how to demonstrate transfers are always in members’ best interests; and…”

“I beg to move amendment 250, in clause 38, page 37, line 12, at end insert “or (c) the relevant Master Trust meets the innovation exemption requirement.””

“I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Amendments made: 143, in clause 41, page 53, line 8, leave out “Powers to make” and insert “Treasury”. This amendment is consequential on Amendment 144. Amendment 144, in clause 41, page 53, line 25, at end insert— “(1A) The Treasury must by …”

“I also congratulate the hon. Member on her elevation to Economic Secretary to the Treasury; I am sure she will do very well. The UK banking sector provides a valuable service to our economy, keeping money in circulation, funding business and mortgages and all the rest of it. The financial services sector is the UK’s bi…”

“Again, this is all very technical and rather dry.”

“The Bill sets a minimum asset threshold of £25 billion for workplace pension schemes to operate as megafunds by 2030. This is not, in itself, particularly controversial, and we are all fully aware of the arguments about scale being effective when running pension funds. The requirement is intended to drive consolidation…”

“I rise to speak to new clause 32, which looks at the effects of some of the changes on the UK gilt market. Defined-benefit pension schemes are major holders of UK Government bonds, with pension funds holding around 28% of the gilt market —the UK Government bond market—as of early 2022. Those investments provide stable,…”

“I will speak to our new clause 36. I am grateful to the Minister for his comments; I will come to those in a minute. The Government dropped plans for the lifetime provider or “pot for life” model, which would have allowed individuals to direct all workplace pension contributions into a single, personally chosen pension…”

“This is a very uncontentious and highly technical part of the Bill. We have no objections to any of these provisions and so will be supporting them.”

“On a point of order, Ms McVey. Might it be easier, for brevity, if we vote on amendments 251 to 253 together?”

“It is a great pleasure to speak in this incredibly dry debate about incredibly technical aspects of regulation. I am only disappointed not to see the new Economic Secretary to the Treasury make her debut today, although it is always nice to see the Chief Secretary.”

“Quite right. The hon. Gentleman’s leader is with the parliamentary Labour party right now, I think, which will be very exciting. The regulations are technical, dry but welcome changes to the detailed firm-facing regulations and definitions in the MiFID organisational regulations and capital buffers regime. They follow …”

“Broadly, we welcome clause 20, which builds on important work that was started under the previous Government to address the issue of small, dormant pension pots. This is a critical step forward to consolidate small pots, which can otherwise be costly and inefficient both for pension schemes and, importantly, for their …”