Motion
Moved by
That the Bill do now pass.
(Con)
My Lords, I wish to emphasise again that this is a rather
technical Bill, which has been made easier because some noble
Lords here in the House today are very knowledgeable in this
area. Those who spoke during the progress of the Bill have made
it very clear that this is an important and long-awaited Bill.
There cannot be many Private Members’ Bills that have been
repeatedly called for in other debates over the course of several
years.
This Bill was expertly presented and taken through the other
place by Margaret Ferrier. I thank her, the departmental
officials and my right honourable friend the Minister for
Pensions for all the work that was done to get this Bill to this
place. Though it might look complex as a piece of legislation,
the Bill has a simple purpose of helping pension schemes meet
their legal obligations. Specifically, it will help occupational
pension schemes use the GMP conversion to correct the issue of
men and women being treated differently in formerly contracted
out defined benefit occupational pension schemes because of the
impact of having a guaranteed minimum pension.
It is therefore with very great pleasure that I stand here today
to present this Bill as it reaches its final stage in this
House.
(Lab)
My Lords, I briefly pay tribute to all involved in this Bill,
including , who steered it
through the other place, and the noble Baroness, Lady Redfern,
who has done the same for us here.
As the noble Baroness said, my noble friend Lady Drake and I can
now stop badgering the Minister for a Bill on GMP equalisation.
Although the Government Whips never did come through with
government time, I commend the DWP for its wholehearted support
of a Private Member’s Bill that happened to cover just the right
territory at just the right time.
4.00pm
I am sorry to have missed the earlier stages because of Covid,
but I am very grateful to my noble friend Lady Merron, who did
such a marvellous job in my place. There are a couple of
outstanding issues, such as the position of pension schemes
already in the Pension Protection
Fund raised by my noble friend Lady Drake, and the concerns
raised by the Delegated Powers Committee, to which Ministers were
only able to respond yesterday. However, we do not wish to hold
up the Bill, so we will take these offline and hope to deal with
them with the Minister before regulation. The key thing is that
we are finally about to pass a Bill which the Government are
confident will give the necessary legal certainty to schemes
seeking to equalise guaranteed minimum pensions. This is good
news, and we are pleased to support it.
(Con)
My Lords, I must again thank my noble friend Lady Redfern for
presenting this Bill so ably today. I am pleased to be to here to
give my support, and that of the Government, to the Bill. It is
an important step towards schemes finally laying to rest the
issue of the unequal effect of guaranteed minimum pensions. I pay
tribute to my noble friend for her stewardship of the Bill and to
other noble Lords who have contributed their views during its
passage through the House.
I pay tribute to the late . I am saddened that
he is not here to see this Bill through today, and I know that
many others here feel the same way.
It is also right that we acknowledge and thank Members of the
other place for their contribution. Margaret Ferrier, the
honourable Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, took the Bill
through. It is down to her, and to my noble friend Lady Redfern,
that we have the Bill in front of us now. I also thank the
Members in the other place who contributed to the debates on the
Bill. The cross-party support the Bill has achieved in both
Houses shows the long-standing commitment of Members to resolve
this issue. This Bill will now provide the industry with the
legal clarity it has been seeking in relation to GMP conversion
legislation. Once again, I thank my noble friend Lady Redfern and
express my and the Government’s strong support for the Bill.
4.02pm
Bill passed.
