Clause 10 - The Determinations Panel
Pensions Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Chris Pond (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Gravesham, Labour)
Clause 10 provides that the regulator must establish a determinations panel. The panel's duty will be to exercise on behalf of the regulator the ''reserved regulatory functions'' set out in schedule 2. The decision whether to exercise any of those regulatory functions will also be reserved to the panel.
The determinations panel must consist of a chairman and at least six other members. The
chairman of the panel will be chosen by a special committee convened for that purpose and will be chaired by a non-executive member of the regulator. The remaining panel members will be appointed by the panel's chairman. None of the panel's members may be a member of the board or the staff of either the regulator or the pension protection fund, as spelled out in clause 10(5)(b). Those provisions will further ensure that the determinations panel is effectively independent from other parts of the regulator. In that way, the establishment of a determinations panel will mean that regulatory decision making will be kept separate from the setting of strategy and other functions of the board. It also separates the decision makers from investigatory staff. It therefore provides a degree of independence in the regulator's decision-making processes.
In itself, the existence of the determinations panel does not make the regulator's processes fully compliant with the Human Rights Act 1998. That comes from the right to refer any of the regulator's determinations to the pensions regulator tribunal, which we shall come to later. However, the panel's separation from the members and staff of the regulator enhances the impartiality of decision making. That is particularly important when it is decided that a regulatory function must be exercised immediately in order to protect members of a scheme.
The creation of the determinations panel will not only enable best use of the regulator's resources but ensure that the regulator remains efficient and accountable. It will also provide a comfortable degree of objectivity whenever evidence suggests that action should be taken against those with responsibilities for pension schemes.