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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

What I do know is that nurses are so agitated about the level of pay that they are getting that they are writing to every Member of Parliament about it. I am sure that the hon. Lady has received several postcards from nurses in her area complaining about the pay increase. On pensions, there is an issue that has been a bugbear of mine for some time. I am sorry that we did not deal with it when we were in power, and I hope that the Government will consider it in the dying days of their Administration. If not, I hope that we will do something about it when we take over. Pensioners from the United Kingdom who have gone to live in certain countries abroad, such as Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, South Africa and New Zealand, have not had the pensions for which they have paid in uprated. Why not? The Government say that there are not reciprocal arrangements in several of those countries, but I do not understand how that comes about. If somebody from this country retires to another part of the European Union they will get their pension uprated straight away. There are all sorts of links with Commonwealth countries such as Australia and New Zealand, and people like to go and live in or retire to them. This problem affects 520,000 people who have moved to the countries that I mentioned, and I hope that Ministers will re-examine it. If the pensioner moved away from this country 20 years ago, one can only imagine what level of income they have to live on in those countries.