Results 1-20 of 62 for in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates' speaker:Baroness Drake

Queen’s Speech — Debate (4th Day) (14 May 2013)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, I am pleased to follow the noble Lord, Lord Stoneham, and to comment on the Government’s commitment to people who save for retirement and to create a single-tier pension. People save for their retirement through the compulsory national insurance system, through auto-enrolment into workplace pensions and through an active decision voluntarily to save more than is delivered by...

Financial Services Bill: Committee (5th Day)(Continued) (25 July 2012)

Baroness Drake: There is an issue that I am not sure the Minister has addressed. The PRA will be focused on prudential regulation, so its approach on how discretion should be applied on with-profits policies could be influenced by a preoccupation with the prudential responsibility, and through that focus may become unfair in how it has balanced the consumer's interests.

Financial Services Bill: Committee (5th Day)(Continued) (25 July 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 141 in my name. The PRA is the prudential regulator of the insurance companies. It has an insurance objective, which will include a requirement to contribute to securing an appropriate degree of protection for policyholders, understandably reflecting the correlation in the insurance sector between the management of risk and the consumer outcome, especially...

Financial Services Bill: Committee (5th Day) (25 July 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, I had come to the point where I was reserving this for Report and begging leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 117 withdrawn. Amendments 117A and 117B not moved. Amendment 118 has been retabled as Amendment 118AA. Amendment 118A not moved. Amendment 118AZA Moved by Baroness Kramer 118AZA: Clause 5, page 17, line 35, at end insert- "(3) Section 21 of the Financial Services and...

Financial Services Bill: Committee (5th Day) (25 July 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, perhaps I might respond to some of the issues that have arisen in the debate and in the reply from the noble Lord, Lord Sassoon. The Minister is arguing that the FCA has a sufficient mandate through the competition and consumer objectives, as drafted, to tackle these matters. My problem is that I do not share that confidence in the absence of the amendment to the competition...

Financial Services Bill: Committee (5th Day) (25 July 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, the FCA's objective to promote "effective competition" will deliver fully on the Government's commitment to putting the consumer at the heart of the financial system only if there is no ambiguity about the FCA's authority to tackle hidden and rip-off charges. The FCA can judge the effectiveness of competition only if it is explicitly required to take into account the ease with which...

Financial Services Bill — Committee (4th Day) (Continued) (18 July 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, Amendment 107 is in my name. Bob Diamond said in November 2011 at the "Today" programme lecture: "Our culture must be one where the interests of customers and clients are at the very heart of every decision we make; where we all act with trust and integrity." This amendment puts that principle in the Bill, by adding to the FCA's consumer objective that it must have regard to the...

Financial Services Bill: Committee (1st Day) (26 June 2012)

Baroness Drake: On that point, I am sure that it would leak or become obvious but what is laid before Parliament is not the report that the Treasury receives but the report that the Bank publishes. This provision allows for the Bank not to publish on the grounds of its view of a public interest issue.

Financial Services Bill: Committee (1st Day) (26 June 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, perhaps I might ask the Minister a very brief question. Proposed new Section 3E(2) says: "The Oversight Committee must ... if or to the extent that the Bank accepts the recommendations, monitor the implementation of the recommendations". My question is very simple. If the Bank does not accept the recommendations, what then happens?

Banking Reform — Statement (14 June 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, I have only just had time to read the White Paper but I ask the Minister to elaborate on two issues. The Statement makes it clear that the strength of a country's banking sector strengthens its stability and gives it a competitive advantage-a view that I endorse. However, that view clearly worried the European authorities, as evidenced by Mr Enria's evidence to the Joint Committee...

Financial Services Bill — Second Reading (Continued) (11 June 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, the Bill replaces the tripartite system with a twin-peak model, but the witnesses to the Joint Committee of which I was a member were overwhelmingly of the view that the structure of financial regulation was not the determining factor in how successful a country was in handling a crisis. The chairman of the European Banking Authority said that, "during the crisis there were...

Queen's Speech — Debate (5th Day) (16 May 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, the focus in the Government's programme on fair markets and the regulation of the financial services sector is to be welcomed. With auto-enrolment into pensions, millions more people will save through capital markets. Confidence in those markets has been worn down by mistrust, scandals, charges, complexities and conflicts of interest. Fiduciary duties exist to ensure that...

Employment Tribunals Act 1996 (Tribunal Composition) Order 2012: Motion to Approve (28 March 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, my involvement with employment tribunals is recorded in the register of interests. Issues of fair or unfair dismissal are at the heart of workplace relationships. The first-tier employment tribunal is in effect an industrial court where evidence is assessed and decisions made on what is fair and reasonable conduct. It was intended that those decisions would be rooted in the...

Welfare Reform Bill: Commons Reasons and Amendment (14 February 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, I support Motion G1. I am conscious that I have entered the debate several times on the matter of the grace period before the weight of penalties comes into play and the benefit cap bites for those who lose their job through redundancy or some enforced reason. I apologise today if I sound a little repetitive, but it is something about which I feel most strongly. A modern welfare...

Pensions: Occupational Pensions — Question for Short Debate (1 February 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, my first involvement with NEST is a matter of record. I thank my noble friend Lord McFall for securing this debate and I give recognition to his work on pensions. Active membership of workplace pension schemes is now at its lowest level since the 1950s. Although I am relieved that the revised timetable for auto-enrolment has been published, I desperately hope that there will be no...

Welfare Reform Bill — Report (5th Day) (Continued) (23 January 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their support and the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, who also argued the case for family and friends carers in Committee. I accept that the noble Lord has shown a commitment to looking at the needs of this group and I think the charities would accept that. My anxiety and that of the charities that articulate the interests of family and friends carers is that the...

Welfare Reform Bill — Report (5th Day) (Continued) (23 January 2012)

Baroness Drake: I thank the noble Lord for that response. In the earlier stages of the debate on this community, my particular concern was that the protection necessary for it is not dealt with solely as a matter of discretion and that there is clear guidance-whether or not as a consequence of dealing with the matter as part of a wider resolution-that it is not left solely to the individual discretion of...

Welfare Reform Bill — Report (5th Day) (Continued) (23 January 2012)

Baroness Drake: Obviously it would have been preferable if the Minister had said unequivocally that this matter will not be left to local discretion, but it is clear that I am not going to get that reassurance. However, the noble Lord has said quite a lot on record that he is committed to trying to resolve the needs of this particular group. Perhaps I may borrow a phrase from the noble Lord, Lord Newton, in...

Welfare Reform Bill — Report (5th Day) (Continued) (23 January 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, I rise to move Amendment 60B, the purpose of which is to exempt from the benefit cap family and friends carers who are bringing up children whose parents cannot do so. These are children who would otherwise be in care and this community of carers is looking after a population well in excess of 200,000 children. Family and friends carers may be disproportionately affected by the...

Welfare Reform Bill — Report (5th Day) (Continued) (23 January 2012)

Baroness Drake: My Lords, I support Amendment 60, to which my name is attached. It would support hard-working people and their families with a clear work ethic to manage the challenges of today's flexible labour market and the consequences of losing their job through no fault of their own by allowing a transition period of 26 weeks before the benefit cap is applied. In integrating in and out of work...