The debates in the Lords can be found below:

Hansard 1 Nov
Hansard 4 Nov
Hansard 8 Nov
Hansard 14 Nov

Following its Third Reading in the Lords, where over 1200 amendments were considered, the Bill returned to the Commons and it reversed two of the Lords' amendments which would have dispensed with the requirement to take up annuities by the age of 75. See:

Hansard 16 Nov
Hansard 17 Nov

Committee Stage
During the Lords committee stage the amendment ensuring the inclusion of pensioner members in the election of MNTs was adopted on 14th September. It was also announced that the regulator will determine what counts as an adequately representative organisation in the code of practice to avoid the possibility of a handful of self-nominated people claiming special status.

For some highlights of the Grand Committee proceedings, click here.

Second Reading
The Second Reading took place on Thursday, 10th June. The full debate can be viewed by clicking here but here are some brief extracts of particular interest to OPA members:

Baroness Hollis of Heigham:
On member-nominated trustees, we have accepted that our simplified requirements would nevertheless be better balanced by giving pensioners as well as active scheme members a statutory role in the member-nominated trustee processes. We shall introduce an amendment to that effect in Committee.

..Part 6 gives the detail of the new financial assistance scheme that has already been widely welcomed, helping to resolve what I would call the Allied Steel and Wire problem, with which I am sure noble Lords are familiar. The Government have made available £400 million of public money to provide assistance to those people who have lost their pensions due to their defined benefit schemes being wound up underfunded. The Government are talking to industry about the contribution it may wish to make, as well as discussing the best ways of administering the scheme. Further details of the financial assistance scheme, including who will be eligible and the level of assistance to be provided, will be developed through consultation with stakeholders

Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde:
..Much of what we have today is a result of the decisions that we all supported in the past; for example, pension holidays for employers. Many of us know of employers who have not paid pension contributions for employees for a number of years. That cannot be right. Under the pension legislation, many employers take surpluses out of the pension scheme. So there are a number of reasons why we are in the state that we are in, among them the shortcomings of the (1995) Act

Baroness Turner of Camden:
..I understand that the Bill provides for at least one third to be member-nominated. Attempts have been made in the other place to increase the proportion to one half; I am very sorry that that was not successful. I have always been very much in favour of member-nominated trustees. In my experience, many become very committed to their schemes. They have the advantage also that they know their companies well. Unions have for many years provided training for trustees. There is now a new requirement in the Bill for trustees to be conversant with, or have knowledge and understanding of, a very wide range of issues. The regulator is expected to produce a code of practice. No penalties are specified but the regulator apparently has power to create them.

Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts:
..I have had correspondence, particularly from a pensioner who worked for Joseph Lucas, a Birmingham-based, long-established engineering company, supplying the automobile and aerospace industries. The company has been taken over by a US company, which the pensioner believes is hard-nosed—one might say predatory—in its reputation. He has concerns about the drawing of assets out of the United Kingdom. I would be interested to hear from the noble Baroness the powers of the regulator in respect of controlling the departure of assets from the United Kingdom, or the powers to require restitution if assets are so removed.

Baroness Barker:
For the next year and a half, your Lordships' House will devote an inordinate amount of time to studying the regulations and orders which will emanate from this Bill, and I believe that we will be right to spend as much time as we possibly can on going through them.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham:
..I also wish to endorse the points made by my noble friends Lady Turner and Lady Greengross about the long-term impact of the contributions holiday from 1987 onwards. It has accounted for something around 30 per cent of the current deficit in pension funding and actuaries now tell us that it was probably unnecessary in terms of the 105 per cent cap. It was used to prop up corporate returns.

The Benches opposite insisted that what the noble Lord, Lord MacGregor, called "the £5 billion ACT raid" contributed to the pension scenario that we now face. It was not £5 billion, it was probably £3.5 billion and it was not ACT, which is a form of payments on account, but was payable tax dividends. We all know that pension funds pay no tax. Until 1997, they were gaining a 25 per cent additional payment, or tax credit, to reflect the fact that companies already paid corporation tax.

That meant that there was pressure on companies to increase their dividends, which might not be prudent, to gain the "freebie" of a payable tax credit. It also meant that by reducing corporation tax by £3.5 billion, the lowest in Europe, which the Chancellor did, companies were in a much healthier position to pay dividends, which is more appropriate. But in any case, pension funds are not taxpayers and I do not see why there should be an additional notional tax paid refund on top when pensions are already heavily tax privileged on the way in and on the way out compared to all other forms of savings, which are not only taxed, but are also often double taxed, as with building society accounts.

Therefore, I simply do not accept the description of the role of ACT. I quite understand that pension funds would like a 25 per cent freebie on top of paying no tax at all. However, if one does not accept that that is legitimate, except in so far as it artificially enhances the value of funds, I hope noble Lords will agree that reducing corporation tax and strengthening companies is a much healthier way to grow dividends for the future.