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Banking Bill

That is where we started with the probing amendment of the noble Viscount, Lord Eccles. Perhaps the Committee will accept that I am giving the clear assurance on the cardinal points raised there. We do not intend, nor are we taking the power, to amend accrued rights. We have no intention of intervening with the pension position of individuals or groups. We are seeking to avoid those conditions which obtain in normal commercial practice with regard to the operation of trustees and aspects of concern about pensions. We seek to do that because—I bring the Committee back to the obvious point—we are involved in a transfer that we hope on many occasions to effect as rapidly as possible, because the transfer relates to institutions in considerable difficulty. Nothing in the Bill, or in the clause, obviates our obligation to act in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights. Those rights will be observed and there will be no exercise of power to disrupt accrued rights, which would be quite contrary to Article 1, Protocol 1, of the convention. The Government are giving the clear assurance that we have no intention of doing that through the drafting of the clause. However, we need to move with greater dispatch than in normal commercial transfers. The clause is not drafted to undo employees’ pension rights, pots or entitlements. The noble Lord, Lord Newby, asked why we do not single out one group of employees, a limited number. That is not what the clause does, nor is it the intention behind it; it is merely to ensure that we can deal with the problem of institutions more rapidly than is the case under normal commercial transactions. I emphasise that I have a considerable amount to say to justify the government amendments to the clause; that is why I am in great danger of repeating myself not only at length but ad nauseam—a fault of which I have been accused in the past. I hope that the Committee will accept that at least I have set out my response to the amendment moved by the noble Viscount, Lord Eccles. The issues raised by the noble Baroness will inform our debate on the next two or three amendments.