Clause 27 - Notification of trustees, managers,
Pensions Bill
10:30 am
Mr George Osborne (Tatton, Conservative)
The clause requires the regulator to inform
''trustees or managers of the scheme, and . . . the employer in relation to the scheme, of the fact that the''
freezing
''order has been made''.
We debated whether the regulator should do that within 24 hours or as soon as was reasonably practicable. I do not propose to rerun that debate even if you allowed me to, Mr. Griffiths.
However, there is a difference between the treatment of the provision of information to trustees, managers and employers, and the treatment of provision of information to members of a scheme. Under subsection (2), the regulator ''must'' inform the trustees, the manager and the employer. However, under subsection (3),
''The Regulator may . . . direct the trustees or managers . . . to notify''
scheme members. Presumably, he may not. In other words, a regulator might know that there is an immediate risk to a scheme and impose a freezing order, and then tell the managers and employer, but not the scheme members, who would be the only people kept in the dark. Certainly, I would want to know if my scheme—the parliamentary scheme—were subject to a freezing order and would expect someone to tell me that.