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Pensions Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for setting on record his reasons for drafting the Bill as it is. I can see why the rules should not affect the purpose or object of the scheme; I am much less convinced on such issues as, "““meetings, committees or delegation of functions””." Those appear to me to be quintessentially internal matters for the trustees to develop over time, and of no real concern to the Secretary of State. On the amendments that I mainly expect to speak to today, I will raise a number of issues that probe the role of the Secretary of State and the trustee corporation. We need to take an overall view on whether the balance of the ongoing involvement of the Secretary of State veers toward micromanagement, and whether that is inappropriate. On reading the Bill, my initial view is that the DWP’s officials have gone overboard, as usual, in finding so many nooks and crannies of the trustee corporation for the Government to be involved in.