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Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2008

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours for raising the issue, for the way he has raised it, and for giving me advance sight of the important questions put to him by UNISON in particular and, in general, by other trade unions involved in discussions on the important business of the local government pension scheme. I am also grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, for her constructive comments, observations and questions, and to the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, for raising issues in his usual way. I suppose I ought to declare a past interest in that I, too, was a contributor to the local government pension scheme—in Wirral, I think. I subsequently commuted my payments into the parliamentary scheme. I am sure that that was a sensible move.