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Pensions Bill

My Lords, I am delighted to support my sea-view neighbour, the noble Lord, Lord Fowler. I was invigorated by a bracing dip in Seagrove Bay this morning before I came here and I feel particularly vigorous on his behalf. I have received a letter from the honourable Mr Justice Etherton, the chairman of the Law Commission, following my speech in support of the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, at Third Reading. The letter states that, "““consultation has been taking place across Government and considerable effort is being made to secure agreement on how to implement our recommendations … Although there has been no formal response by the Government to our report, we have been fully aware for some considerable time that the recommendations have been well received … and that the Government has been and still is actively considering the most appropriate method of implementing them””." In government, I was a special adviser to the Home Secretary, many years ago. I know the code. I know when nothing is happening. The noble Lord, Lord Norton, has already told us the timescale. I should say to the chairman of the Law Commission and the Government that achieving consensus is not simply, or even mainly, a matter of interdepartmental negotiation within government, as the letter seems to imply. It is high time that the Government gave their official and considered response to the Law Commission’s report on post-legislative scrutiny, so that Parliament, opposition parties and informed and interested opinion outside can debate, consider and build on it a genuine and lasting consensus. You do not do that behind closed doors with the long grass growing. The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, also kindly sent me a letter on similar lines to that of the Law Commission. I wonder whether they are written by the same person. He said that, "““the Law Commission’s report has been the subject of close and continuing consideration … the issues … are complex … It is important that we get the response right if we are to draw the maximum benefit … I cannot be specific at this stage as to when final decisions will be taken, but I accept that the response has taken longer to prepare than we would have wished. The chairman of the Law Commission … was updated with the state of play at a meeting in May””." That will not have been a very long meeting. When will the Government give their response? Can the noble Lord assure us that it will not take four more years? If he can, there is no earthly reason why he should not accept the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, today because, if this Government are still in office, they will be able to put this Bill, when enacted, through whatever their preferred form of post-legislative scrutiny might be. If he cannot give us that assurance, he should simply curl up in shame.