Speeches by Bedford.

“I thank my right hon. Friend for putting that on record. I am not confident that this Labour Government understand aspiration, because they simply cannot comprehend the politics of people wanting to better themselves, their families and their communities. Sadly, they actually fear aspiration, and that is why this Labou…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Unfortunately, Labour Members tend to have the mantra: what I cannot have, you shall not have. We on the Conservative Benches want everyone to succeed.”

“My hon. Friend puts the case very clearly, and he is absolutely right. Labour Members talk about intergenerational unfairness, but they do nothing about it. We Conservatives believe in encouraging young people to determine their own futures.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for making an excellent point. Many people come to my surgeries and make that point month in, month out. That is why this Conservative motion matters. By abolishing stamp duty, we would be empowering young people to aspire to own their own homes and invest in their own futures. That is what a res…”

“You touched on a few things there. How would you propose to address those things through your guidance—surplus extraction and engaging members—because there will be competing tensions there? How would you incorporate that into guidance?”

“Some of the views from panel one suggested that there is a better approach between trustees and engagement with scheme members to understand their priorities. What is your view on that and how could it be improved?”

“Do you want to add anything on the questions I asked at the end of the first session? I asked what you would do with the pensions Bill; what you would do to improve things in this space. What are the one or two things that you would pull out that the Government need to either build on or not do?”

“Specifically, what governance arrangements should the Pensions Regulator prioritise to ensure that members feel that they are better represented?”

“In the first evidence session there was a bit of frustration about ensuring that members’ interests are properly heard. What are your views about ensuring that there is better engagement with members on things like surplus extraction, discretionary payments, etc.?”

“The pensions Bill, the changes that are coming in around the trustees and release of surpluses have been mentioned. How confident are you that the changes will meet the members’ expectations? We have touched on the 50:50 assumption.”

“Business confidence is shaky at the moment. I think there was a report last week that said that it has declined for five consecutive quarters. I want to get your view on how that is potentially impacting the making of discretionary payments by employers.”

“Yes, but in that situation, if the scheme is going to go into a deficit, there would still be pressure on the employer to then plug that gap, wouldn’t there? In a roundabout way, it would still—”

“But what is your solution to that—introduce that fixed percentage?”

“I am trying to bring all this together. What would you like to see Government doing or not doing in the Bill to enhance the benefits to your members?”

“For a number of years, a lot of these schemes obviously were in huge deficit and then they swung into surpluses when interest rates fluctuated. In my understanding, there is quite a significant backlog in buy-outs at the minute in terms of the insurance industry’s ability to basically take those forward. The next set o…”

“Yes.”

“I think you have just touched on my first question. You argue for changes in legislation to strengthen the rights of members to share the surplus, which I totally understand. A number of us on this Committee also served on the Pension Schemes Bill Committee, so we have seen lots of arguments around this. However, the G…”

“This is going a little off-topic, but it is connected to increasing the power of the trustees in this space. In the Bill—and this is not part of this session—we have the mandation point, about mandating investments, which is essentially the powers of the Secretary of State that could be used. That arguably dilutes the …”

“What ideas do you have on improving the governance in terms of what changes should happen? What is not in the Bill and perhaps should be to strengthen the governance in this space? Jack, maybe you have an opinion on this.”

“Why do you suspect that the Government are not doing that, then? Why are the Government not doing that in the legislation? What would be the argument for not doing that, in your view?”