Speeches by Bell.

“We have asked for an independent review, and then there will be the Secretary of State’s review. I do not want to pre-empt the independent review, for politeness reasons, and I do not want to pre-empt the Secretary of State’s review for legal reasons, seniority reasons and all the rest as well. But it is a very good qu…”

“I probably would not think about it quite like that, in terms of re-entering. As you say, evidence will show that the main effect over time of higher state pension ages—taking the three-decade view—is that it will increase your employment rates through the life course, and most of the effect does happen over a longer t…”

“It is an independent commission and I do not want to prejudge what it should do. We have discussed it with them, and they are looking at how to think about adequacy in the round, not just in respect of the state pension. That is obviously right. The commission will publish an interim report, and I have not seen it, but…”

“As a statement of fact, it is true across all age groups or every age cohort that there are big differences in people’s ability to work, either for their whole lives or in different phases of their lives. The degree of that varies significantly for individuals over time and it varies across societies over time. Let me …”

“Basically, yes. I will bring in Nicholas in a second. Yes, we definitely have to do more to take into account the different circumstances, particularly the one you are talking about where it is not about retaining you in employment but maybe, as in the example you have given, where someone has a health condition that m…”

“You have started from what we hear as constituency MPs. I think two things are true. One is that people basically do know why the state pension age is increasing in aggregate, which is that we are an older society and we tend to live longer than we did in the 1940s and the 1920s. But then people have been worried about…”

“I am not standing by anything the Conservative Government did in 2011 or that the Lib Dems supported them in doing. As I said, I opposed the acceleration of the state pension age at the time because it was done with too little notice and with too little thought. I will answer for what we all do, which is to take very s…”

“On the Mayfield review specifically?”

“Oh, so you mean back in the 2000s?”

“That is absolutely right and that is a good example. All employers—and most individuals, because they have experience of friends and family in similar situations—would agree that the interaction between any health conditions and disabilities and the nature of your job is very context dependent. That is why duties on, f…”

“I think there is a wider question, which is probably more in the bigger labour market question. It is the traditional relationship between an employer and an employee. It is the value of retention of built-up skills. That is what is sitting behind a lot of our wish to ensure that we have this alignment of incentives be…”

“A lot, and that goes back to the question earlier about how seriously we should take age and some of the cross-cutting characteristics that are disproportionately visible among older groups. As I say, I do think this is about all of Government. If you do not have an NHS that is functioning, people cannot get an appoint…”

“I think there is a lot more agreement on that challenge. We have all had constituents or even family members in those situations. That is why I was saying earlier that we need to think about the benefit system in the round. I am sure you will have had this in your surgeries as well, but you will have 55-year-olds in th…”

“If you step back and look at not just that period but that whole period of government from 2010 to 2024, that is a reasonable characterisation of what happened. I think I mainly would say what I said at the beginning, which is that people thought about that too flippantly and did not weigh sufficiently how big a deal i…”

“It is not the tone. I don’t think if you focused on the question really seriously, you would have chosen to make an acceleration with less than five years’ notice. I do not think that is a choice people would have made. That is abstracting from your wider point, which is about the right level in the longer term. Are th…”

“We going to be keeping the triple lock, yes, through this Parliament.”

“A manifesto is a manifesto. I hope to be the Pensions Minister in 2050, but we will find out, won’t we?”

“I am definitely hoping to retire as well.”

“Payments of both the basic pension and the new state pension will increase by 4.8% in April, in just a few weeks’ time, boosting pensioners’ incomes by up to £575 a year. The yearly amount of the full new state pension is projected to rise by about £2,100 over the current Parliament, reflecting this Government’s commit…”

“I am glad to hear that my hon. Friend is organising events to drive pension credit take-up, as he did last year. I know that Members on both sides of the House will be doing that throughout the year. On my hon. Friend’s question about the failure of Safe Hands, he is a powerful advocate for his constituents. He will kn…”