During the passage of the Bill the OPA achieved three significant victories in persuading the government to amend the original Pensions Bill:

• Member Nominated Trustees - the representation will be raised from 33 to 50%
• Pensioner members will have a role to play in the selection and
  nomination processes. (The first draft of the clauses could have meant that pensioners were excluded.)
• Organisations representing pensioner members have been recognised officially for the first time.

The then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alan Johnson, announced that 50% of trustees were to be member nominated just a few days after his appointment. At the same time in the Lords a government amendment was made that requires MNTs to be nominated as a result of a process that involves "all the active members or an organisation which adequately represents the active members and all the pensioner members of the scheme or an organisation which adequately represents pensioner members and are selected by some or all of the members of the scheme". Baroness Hollis said: " ... the amendments are an attempt to make clear that pensioner members may be invited to nominate trustees, and that they may be included as part of the scheme trustees."

For more on the Report stage and the earlier Second Reading in the the House of Lords. click here.

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

Some earlier extracts from the Third Reading debate in the Commons can be seen here.