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HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Third sitting)The powers and duties to make local government pension scheme regulations under this chapter of the Bill are exercisable under the 2013 Act. Clause 6 sets out the amendments…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Third sitting)I beg to move amendment 25, in clause 8, page 8, line 2, leave out paragraph (b). This amendment is consequential on Amendment 27. It removes the power to disapply the section in…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Third sitting)Thank you, Sir Christopher, for the progress through the local government pension schemes part of the Bill. We now move on to the defined-benefit clauses. Clause 8, which amends…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Third sitting)I welcome the broad consensus about the direction of travel from everyone who has spoken. I will come first to the remarks from the hon. Member for Aberdeen North, who made some…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)The hon. Lady’s last point is basically the right one. The policy objective is that where someone is not actively engaging in their pot, that is available for consolidation. The…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Third sitting)That is a factually accurate description of the situation. The hon. Lady is not the first person to have raised that point with me, and I understand the wish for greater certainty…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Third sitting)I thank the hon. Members for Torbay and for Horsham for their amendments and for giving us the opportunity to discuss the matter of defined-benefit members and pre-1997 accruals.…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Third sitting)I think I can offer the hon. Lady some reassurance. It is true that within some scheme rules it will be clear that discretionary increases of the kind that we are debating would…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Third sitting)My overall reflection on the amendments is that in most cases what is being requested is already happening, or risks reducing flexibility for trustees. I will set that out in a…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)The clause, as we have just discussed, will ensure that the Government have the power to introduce regulations to secure the consolidation of eligible small pots into an…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)I understand why the hon. Member tabled the amendment. I think amendments like this one should be tabled in most Bill Committees by all Oppositions, as they have been over the…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)The hon. Lady is not only telling me I am going to be fired, but then clearly angling for the job by again giving the speech I was going to give. I agree that there is broad…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)To ensure consistency, comparability and transparency of the value that arrangements provide, it is essential that all arrangements undertake the same process in the same way and…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)Let me directly address that point, and then I will turn to the Government amendments. The answer is yes. I did not respond, but I should have, to the related point raised by the…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)Clause 15 details the actions that may be required when an arrangement falls into an intermediate rating. That could be an arrangement that is at risk of not delivering value, or…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)I always aim to provide words of wisdom—say one in 100. Let me engage directly with the points about the nature of the arrangement. The honest answer is that lots of it will be in…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)Central to the value for money framework is the assignment of value for money ratings. We discussed that briefly during the evidence session on Tuesday, and some hard questions…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (Fourth sitting)It will be a great relief to everybody to hear that clause 13, although vital, is relatively small. Importantly, it enables requirements relating to member satisfaction surveys,…04 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (First sitting)Q Could you explain a bit about what NEST has done in order to do that? Christopher Brooks: NEST has essentially negotiated with the private finance industry, and is not paying…02 Sept 2025HANSARDPension Schemes Bill (First sitting)Q So when you are thinking about segmenting, your main segmentation is size of pot and other pensions. Dale Critchley: It is the ability to take risk.02 Sept 2025