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Pensions Bill

It seems to me that, when directors are declaring a dividend, they take account of the current financial circumstances of the company and make their best judgment of the future financial circumstances of the company. They take account of the position of creditors, the cash flow of the company and the covenant to the scheme. A judgment is made, taking account of all those factors, on whether it is prudent to pay a dividend and the level of the dividend. Nothing is totally predictable in life or in business. I am sure that many boards would recognise that, if times are good now, there may be downturns in the future. It seems to me that dividends declared in the context of that total judgment now could not be revisited with the benefit of hindsight just because circumstances arose that were not taken account of and could not reasonably have been foreseen at the time. I do not quite understand why there is such a level of concern. These are judgments—are they not?—that directors have to take every day, quite apart from issues associated with pensions, in declaring dividends for their companies and to their shareholders.