Clause 11 - Functions exercisable by the
Pensions Bill
4:00 pm
Professor Steve Webb (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Work & Pensions; Northavon, Liberal Democrat)
I should like to make a brief observation. The amendments take out some of the powers under clause 11 to extend or amend the role of the determinations panel. Amendment No. 128 applies to subsection (8), which mentions members of the panel or its sub-committees. We are starting to get the sense that there may be a large number of people involved. In the previous debate, Committee members will have observed that the Under-Secretary did not tell us who will pay those people, how much they are likely to cost or how what they do will relate to what the regulator does.
The third amendment refers to the panel's sub-committees. We have heard that they are going to contain well qualified lawyers and experts; they do not come cheap. There will be sub-committees, so there will have to be lots of them. We still do not know who pays them. If the regulator pays them they are employees of the regulator: that cannot be right. Presumably the Department pays them. Was that expenditure included in the figure for the cost of the regulator that we were given earlier? Can the Under-Secretary clarify that matter, to help our assessment of the amendments?