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Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 113: 113: Clause 70, page 34, line 23, at end insert ““and the Authority must exercise an overriding duty to act in the best interests of future members and, from 2012, members of the scheme”” The noble Baroness said: The amendment is in the names also of the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, and the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, who want very much to be associated with it. It is a simple, probing amendment which would give PADA a clear focus on its core activity. The authority, as the Minister has said we should call it, is given in Clause 70 no fewer than six broad principles under which to work. It is important that it does not lose sight of its main purpose, which surely should be to act in the best interests of members and future members of the scheme. Giving PADA an overriding duty would help ensure that if there was any conflict between the principles outlined in the Bill, it would be clear where PADA’s duty lay. It would also give an important layer of security to scheme members. When the consumer organisation, Which?, carried out market research into pension provision, what people said they would trust most was an independent body such as that recommended by the Turner commission. If they knew that such a body was to be set up with a clear, overriding duty, such as that in Amendment No. 13, to look after their interests first and foremost, rather than with at least six different principles and no one overriding principle, I think that I know which they would prefer. It is stated in the Explanatory Notes to the Bill that the six principles are matters to which the authority will have ““express regard””. That may be a term of art—I am very ignorant about terms of art—but what exactly does it mean? In responding to the amendment, the Minister will probably say that PADA has to get the balance right between employers and other qualifying pension schemes and that an overriding objective for PADA is therefore undesirable. However, that is a matter for debate. It is entirely possible that PADA finds that its plans for personal accounts conflict with the need to encourage participation in qualifying schemes. Minimising the adverse impact on qualifying schemes might dilute the impact of personal accounts on the target group. Others would argue that getting the balance right between the new scheme and the broader pensions industry is the business of the Pensions Regulator and not that of PADA. But whatever reply the Minister gives, it is important that we have this debate now so that we can be clear what PADA’s main objective is. I beg to move.