Clause 10 - The Determinations Panel
Pensions Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Chris Pond (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Gravesham, Labour)
I am sure that people will be clamouring to become members of the determinations panel. As I explained, the chairman of the panel will be appointed by the regulator, and the chairman will nominate the other members of the panel. The purpose is not to meet the requirements of the Human Rights Act 1998. We are not pretending; we have been very open about the fact that the provisions will not do that. However, we are providing a degree of separation between the investigatory powers and the decision-making powers of the regulator. The purpose of the determinations panel is to ensure that the procedures are fair.
Of course, the determinations panel will have the opportunity, when looking at schemes, to make decisions about various issues, dealt with under schedule 2, that I suspect we shall consider in a moment, such as whether fines should be imposed and whether questions should be raised about improvement notices for particular schemes. Those are the sorts of issues that the determinations panel will be concerned with.
The panel's set-up mirrors that of the FSA's regulatory decisions committee, which, as hon. Members are no doubt aware, was discussed at length during the consideration of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. As I said, the measures provide a degree of separation that is desirable under human rights legislation, although we are not pretending that they fulfil the requirements of that legislation. The panel means that the regulator can take decisions quickly; it will be light on its feet. Whenever those decisions impact on other rights, the determinations panel will make an independent and impartial decision.
Members of the panel are highly likely to be legal and pensions experts, as the hon. Member for Eastbourne suggested. That means that considerable expertise will be available to the regulator, which can be used in an independent way, in separation from the role of the regulator. When we come to schedule 2, some other details about the structure of the determinations panel might be discussed. Perhaps we can address those issues when we come to that part of our deliberations.
Question put, That the clause stand part of the Bill:—
The Committee divided: Ayes 13, Noes 1.