---

Pensions Reform

I am grateful to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. These are important issues, and we are entitled to ask the Secretary of State for answers. Why has the Secretary of State rejected Lord Turner’s proposal to have a permanent standing commission on pensions and to consider those issues on an ongoing basis? Why does he suggest instead that there should simply be periodic reviews? Can he also return to the issue of public sector pensions and tell us whether the Government will at some stage set up a similar Turner-type review to consider the reform of public sector pensions? As we consider proposals for legislation, we also want to find as much cross-party consensus as possible. We have accepted major parts of today’s White Paper and the direction of travel. We are of the view, however, that the Government are only delivering half solution today, because of the inadequate nature of the basic pension system on which it will be built. We therefore fear that it will not be the final settled pensions solution that all of us have sought.