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Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 112Q: 112Q: Schedule 1, page 58, line 8, leave out sub-paragraphs (3) and (4) The noble Baroness said: Sub-paragraph (3) says that the appointment period can be up to four years and a person may be reappointed only once, and hence the maximum period is eight years. It seems to me that this is a rather short period for something as complex as the personal accounts pension scheme. We all know that boards need to be refreshed, but the Bill proposes a shorter period than is generally used in the listed company sector, where norms do exist. In practice in the listed company sector, we are finding that the norm is lengthening. There was considerable dissatisfaction with slavish adherence to what appeared to be the rule in the Financial Reporting Council’s corporate governance statement of a maximum of three times three years, which was driven by independence. The FRC looked at that rule last year and emphasised that a person could continue beyond nine years, provided that a board was satisfied with independence. Many boards made representations that they were being deprived of some of their most useful talent—those who understood the business—because the corporate governance rulebook made it difficult for them to do anything else. That has now changed and there is an acceptance that independence is the criterion and not some silly time period that is used to define it. Will the Minister explain how the policy of creating an effective personal accounts scheme is served by removing members of the trustee corporation in a period that is less than is emerging practice in the corporate sector, at a time when those people, given the complexity of personal accounts, may well be—not in all cases—at their most useful? I beg to move.