Schedule 2 - The reserved regulatory functions
Pensions Bill
4:15 pm
Mr Chris Pond (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Gravesham, Labour)
Some important issues have been raised. Let me clarify. We did not seek these powers because we thought that it would be a good wheeze to have the expert reports carried out, or to insist that they were paid for. The purpose of the new clause emerged from the experience of OPRA itself. It found a weakness in its ability to carry out its regulatory powers effectively. Although there might have been a wealth of legal, pension and actuarial expertise readily available and on tap, there was not necessarily the sort of expertise necessary to make a judgment about the viability of a particular employer or the sector in which it operated, or about the ability of that employer to make the payments that the determinations panel might require.
I must also clarify that the determinations panel would exercise its functions on behalf of the regulator. In the circumstances that we are discussing, the regulator would tell those involved that it proposed to ask for a report, and whom it intended to pay for it. The determinations panel would decide how that would be implemented, to be fair and impartial. The regulator would direct who would prepare the report; subsection (2) makes it clear that that person would be nominated or approved by the regulator.
There is an issue about the exchange of information, to which the hon. Member for Northavon referred. We must be clear that the regulator requires that. There is a legal requirement to co-operate in the introduction of reports and enable the regulator to direct that the third party pays for the report. The hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne) was spot-on in his assumption about why we need legislation to make those powers available to the regulator. To answer the hon. Member for Northavon, the regulator will have the power to disclose the contents of the reports to the PPF when necessary.
I hope that hon. Members will recognise that although we will be considering a substantial piece of proposed legislation during the next few weeks, we are not adding to it for the sake of doing so. These are necessary powers that the regulator and a determinations panel will require in order to do the job that my hon. Friend the Minister of State said was necessary to provide for people the confidence and
protection in the operation of these types of pension scheme.
Amendment agreed to.
Schedule 2, as amended, agreed to.