Pensions Bill

moved, as an amendment to Amendment No. 78B (moved on Monday, 27 October 2008 at col. 1441), Amendment No. 78TA: 78TA: Before Schedule 9, leave out lines 140 to 144 The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 78TB. These probing amendments concern the implications of acts taken as a group. First, there is a disparity between the way acts or failures are grouped for the purposes of issuing contribution notices and for the defence. By virtue of paragraph 8 of new Schedule 9, the regulator has to look at whether the material detriment test is met in relation to a series of acts as a whole. However, in new Section 38B, in the statutory defence for a group of acts, sub-paragraph (9) requires that the person has to conclude that his actions were not detrimental in respect of each act. My amendments would mean that where a group of acts was involved, it would be necessary for P to meet condition C if he had concluded that the group as a whole was unlikely to result in a material detriment. For completeness, I should also have tabled an amendment to delete sub-paragraph (10) of new Section 38B, because that, too, requires condition C to apply to each and every act of failure, but I failed to do so. I hope, however, that the Minister will respond on the basis of challenging the need to have regard to each act or failure in a group throughout new Section 38B. I beg to move.