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Postal Services Bill [HL]

The amendment raises some important concerns about what the Government propose will happen to the assets they are transferring out of the RMPP. The Government’s policy paper says that their intention is to sell the assets, ""over a number of years to protect value for money for the taxpayer"." That, of course, is sensible so far as it goes. We have debated the Government’s interesting timing in choosing to sell off a large minority stake in Royal Mail during a severe economic crisis, which has already raised concerns about whether the taxpayer will get value for money. The same, of course, applies to the pension assets. How are the Government going to decide when the assets will be sold? Do they have a target level for the Financial Times Stock Exchange index or some other index at which they will sell, or do they intend to sell the individual bonds and shares when they each reach what the Government regard as a satisfactory price? If so, how will they recognise a satisfactory price when they see one? We need to know a little more about the Government’s decision-making process. Where possible, assets should be held on to until the best return can be got. To do anything else needlessly increases the taxpayer liability, already calculated to be somewhere north of £6 billion. I hope the Minister will be able to go into more detail on how long the Government are prepared to wait before liquidating the pension assets. Are they looking to offload them as soon as is reasonable, given the economic situation, or will they hold on to them until they need to be liquidated to meet the associated pension liabilities? What will be the remit of the person charged with the administration and management of the fund under subsection (3)?