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Postal Services Bill [HL]

I am delighted to hear a confession although I am not ordained to receive it. More seriously, this grouping was far too big to start with. I made some changes to the groupings as they came out last night. The Whips’ Office was quite accommodating and able to separate some amendments, in particular the new clause I suggest later in Amendment 70. My interpretation of this whole thing is that it is headed, "The protection of members’ interests and benefits". I must say in all humility that it is a pleasure to hear an expert such as my noble friend Lord McKenzie, who is clearly on top of his brief. But he is not relying on it: he is using experience and knowledge of the pensions industry. That is valuable to the Committee and I am sure will be of even more value as we proceed through the Bill. I would have liked to separate the protection of past service rights in Amendment 63 from some of the others. We have heard quite a bit this afternoon, but I am an old-fashioned person and I want to read exactly what has been said. I have only been here for just over 10 years, but I have heard too often that it is not necessary to put something on to the face of the Bill. Speaking as a former trustee of the Post Office pension scheme and as a negotiating officer to introduce amendments to schemes, I know how valuable it is to get the words right and how the ambiguity of certain things has to be avoided, although I recognise the expertise that has been demonstrated by my noble friend Lord McKenzie in this debate. I am tempted to pick up on some points that would probably put me in bad odour with the Whips, such as the references made to the universal postal service. I hope that we will get a chance to discuss that in detail later on. I want to see these things on the face of the Bill, but for today I shall take away what has been said, and I heard the Minister’s offer on consultation—which makes a change from last week when consultation was not seen as the proper or appropriate word. However, I give notice that this response is going to be scrutinised because I want those who can help me with their expertise to see if there is not a way to get what we all want: the protection of members’ rights, members’ benefits, the rights of those who succeed them in the case of death, and all the issues I mentioned when moving this welter of amendments earlier. For now, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 40 withdrawn. Clause 15 agreed.