Schedule 1 - The Pensions Regulator
Pensions Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Minister, but I do not accept his point about precedent.
As has been mentioned, the new regulator will have significantly wider functions and powers than OPRA, and it is therefore all the more likely that, even in good faith, it will cause damages to third parties. I take his point about the bad faith exception. As he rightly says, it would not matter if the Government tried to exclude the European convention on human rights and its
effects. It would still kick in in appropriate cases, and there is the possibility of significant damages being paid under the human rights exception. Why should British citizens have to bring cases under that provision when they might also have a straightforward civil action for damages because of a mistake made by the regulator—some information placed in the public domain contrary to the Act—in the absence of bad faith?
The Minister has conceded that there will be circumstances that are beyond either the drafting or the Government's control in which such damages could be payable. I do not think that he dealt with the point, but I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Schedule 1, as amended, agreed to.