Pensions Bill

My Lords, I support the amendment, and do so as a former chairman of the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund up to my retirement from the other place in 2001. Perhaps I may make one comment about the parliamentary scheme, which is frequently misunderstood in the media. The parliamentary pension scheme gets wrapped up with all public sector pension schemes, which are unfunded so frequently are non-contributory, as though it were exactly the same as them. The parliamentary pension scheme is like any other private sector pension scheme in that it is contributed—indeed, at one point, for much of my career in the other place, the members’ contribution was 9 per cent of salary, and I discovered that only 4 per cent of all occupational pension schemes had a members’ contribution as high as that—and it is funded. There is a Treasury contribution, but it is usually negotiated quite tightly and simply represents the contribution that a company would make in the private sector. The parliamentary pension scheme is very similar to all the private sector occupational pension schemes, which have other legislation applied to them. As chairman of the parliamentary pension fund, I got the first pensioner trustee nominated, the noble Lord, Lord Stewartby, but as my noble friend Lord Fowler said, he had to be appointed. He was a very good trustee, but it was an appointed arrangement. If I had looked at this proposal during my time as chairman, I would have been a little hidebound by the fact that, as I understood it then, it would have required a small legislative amendment, and small amendments of this kind do not command high priority in any government programme. However, if, as my noble friend has just said, this is not necessary, that objection disappears. The Pensions Act 2004 considerably increased the responsibility of trustees and the methods by which they became trustees, and that, too, has changed very much since my time. I have always supported the Association of Former MPs in seeking for a pensioner trustee or trustees, as have occupational pension schemes in the private sector. I have since become chairman of three pension funds, one of them very large. The contribution of the pensioner trustees is extremely valuable because they raise points that those who are still employees would not raise. As my noble friend said, it is peculiar that we have not yet been prepared to bring the legislative requirements for the parliamentary fund into line with those which we impose on all pension funds. There is a lot of expertise in pensions in the other place. Elections for the member-nominated trustees would bring about much additional expertise and be valuable to the pension fund. For all these reasons, I hope that we can make progress and get this proposal implemented whether by legislation or otherwise.