Pensions Bill
9:30 am
Professor Steve Webb (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Work & Pensions; Northavon, Liberal Democrat)
Good morning, Mr. Griffiths. I was not aware of last night's meeting of the Programming Sub-Committee—the necessary card did not reach me—so I apologise for not making my observations then, when it might have slightly more constructive to do so. My only worry about amending the programme motion is that the only times when our mental energies will be devoted to state pensions will be this afternoon and Thursday morning. The rest of the Bill is principally about private sector regulation and the pension protection fund, which is all about private sector provision.
At the end of our consideration, however, the new clauses selected for debate—new clause 5 on married women's pensions and new clause 6 on overseas pensions—are to be discussed at the final Thursday afternoon sitting after Easter. Had I attended the meeting last night, I would have asked whether it would have made more sense to deal with all state pension issues in one go. We could then have left those mentally, and dealt with private pension issues for the rest of our deliberations, rather than discussing state pensions today and on Thursday, doing nothing on them for a month, and suddenly discussing them again at the fag-end sitting on the final Thursday afternoon, which may get swamped with Government new clauses anyway. We may not even debate those new clauses at all. I will not make a speech on this subject, but I would be grateful for a response from the Minister.
At the end of this morning's sitting, we could consider whether we might start this afternoon by tweaking our timetable. The new clauses that I mentioned would not have been reached until Thursday anyway, so there would be time to prepare any necessary briefings. I will not go to the wall on this, but that would have been my preference.