Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 54: 54: Schedule 1, page 75, line 11, at end insert— ““( ) The Secretary of State shall consult the chair of the corporation before appointing any other members of the corporation under sub-paragraph (1)(a).”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, Amendment No. 54 amends paragraph 1 of Schedule 1. Under paragraph 1, the Secretary of State will make the first appointments of members of the trustee corporation and, indeed, he will be able to continue to make appointments for an undefined ““initial period””. My amendment would require the Secretary of State to consult the chair of the corporation before making these appointments. That means, of course, that the Secretary of State’s first appointment would need to be the member who is to be the chairman of the corporation. We debated a similar amendment in Committee and I was so surprised at the Minister’s response that I tabled this amendment, which is slightly different, so that the Minister can have another go at explaining to the House the role of the chairman of the trustee corporation. He told us that the chairman of the trustee corporation would be no different from any other member. Perhaps I may quote the Minister from the Hansard for 2 July. He said that, "““all members of the trustee corporation will have an equal voice and equal weight in decision-making ... The chair does not have a greater say than other members, a distinction from the role of chair that one would often see””." He went on: "““I offer a distinction between someone whose job it is to chair the board, to ensure that meetings are conducted properly and so on, and a chairman of an organisation who might have some responsibility for the strategic direction of that organisation and a leadership role. That is not the role that we see for the chair of the trustee corporation; we believe they should act collectively””.—[Official Report, 2/7/08; cols. 305-06.]" I simply cannot see how an effective organisation can be forged on the basis of collectivism. Of course, every member will have an equal vote in decisions—if it is ever necessary to resort to voting—but in any organisation there has to be some strategic direction and leadership. The trustee corporation cannot be a vacuum from which leadership has been expelled; it simply will not work. I am not approaching this from a private sector board perspective, although it is certainly true that in the private sector you will never find a chairman specified in the way that appears to be envisaged by the Government. I looked at the appointment pages of the Sunday newspapers that we had at home at the weekend, when there was the usual clutch of public sector board appointments, including some for chairmen. Each of them referred, in only slightly varying language, to strategy and leadership. Another feature of these advertisements for chairmen was the need to forge a special relationship with the chief executive—usually one of guiding and challenging. This is an important aspect of the role of the chairman in all organisations with which I have worked, in all sectors. I assume that the trustee corporation will have a chief executive. Who, in the Government’s view, is to take the lead responsibility for both supporting that individual and for appraising his or her performance? These things may need a collective view—for example, if a change has to be made—but they do not emerge spontaneously. They have to be led. The point about the Secretary of State consulting the chairman about other appointments to the corporation is that the board has to be one that the chairman believes he can chair effectively. That is a judgment about people. The formation of the trustee corporation is critical to the success of personal accounts. The people who are assembled are crucial in their own right. However, above and beyond that is the ability of the chairman to bring those individuals together to cohere into a whole that is bigger than the parts. That is what I see as leadership and what I see as essential to the trustee corporation. The chairman is not there to keep the attendance records and to ensure that the agenda is processed in time for lunch. Of course, I hope that the Minister will accept this modest amendment. If he does not feel able to do so, I hope that he will set the record straight on how the trustee corporation will work in language that anyone used to a boardroom in any sector will recognise. I hope that the Government will want to recruit a person of real substance and experience for this role. What the Minister says today may dictate whether or not that is achievable. I beg to move.