Lord Freud: I ask your Lordships’ indulgence to make a few observations following events last week, in the context of Amendment 5 on poverty, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock. My noble friend Lady Stroud and I are not pursuing our amendment on universal credit at this time. I was delighted with the Chancellor's decision to improve work allowances and reduce the universal credit taper to...
Lord Freud: My Lords, it is with the greatest possible reluctance that I have felt compelled to join my noble friend and former colleague Lady Stroud in putting down this amendment, which is considered inadmissible by the clerks of the House. My noble friend Lady Stroud has discussed the issue of scope. I will focus purely on why the level of universal credit payments is so important and has been such a...
Lord Freud: My Lords, this Bill is designed to control pension spending and I am broadly in agreement with its direction. However, as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham has just pointed out, there is another pressing issue in social security: the removal of the £20 a week from universal credit at a time when pricing pressures on the poorest are intensifying. There is a backstory here....
Lord Freud: My Lords, with the leave of the House I will make a personal statement. Today, the Commissioner for Standards has published a report into my conduct. The report relates to letters, to which I was a signatory, to members of the judiciary about references provided to the court to inform the sentencing of Mr Elphicke. My motive was purely to alert the judiciary to what I considered to be an...
Lord Freud: My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Leigh on obtaining this debate. I would like to make some observations on the role of the changes to the welfare system in the record levels of employment. I acknowledge that any such impact has taken place in the context of various other levers, such as a flexible labour market and a healthy economy. In 2007, I wrote a report for the Government...
Lord Freud: My Lords, I add my congratulations to my noble friend for securing this debate and, more significantly, for the achievement of setting up the Social Metrics Commission and for delivering this important report. Not the least of her achievements is to have assembled such an impressive group to come together to make these recommendations. The report tackles some of the problems inherent in the...
Lord Freud: My Lords, I want to pick up on two statements made by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, one of which I agree with and one of which I do not. The first and possibly more substantial statement is the claim that 1 million children will lose out and that the new threshold of £7,400 changes where the line is between when people have free school meals and when they do not. This figure was chosen to try...
Lord Freud: My Lords, I add my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong. I want to draw the attention of the House to my entry in the register as a trustee of the Jecda Foundation. Over the last nine years, we have been steadily building an initiative to organise older volunteers to mentor children leaving care. We have called this initiative “Grandmentors”. It is intended to try to replicate the...
Lord Freud: My Lords, I start by congratulating my noble friend Lord Farmer on getting this debate. I do not know what Houdini-like skills he has to secure this timing, but it clearly shows that he knows how to operate the House systems. I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Macpherson of Earl’s Court, on his maiden speech. He has a lot of knowledge of this area which he will be able to contribute...
Lord Freud: The Prime Minister is clear that tackling poverty and disadvantage, and delivering real social reform, is a priority for this Government. The Department for Work and Pensions is leading work across Government to bring forward a social justice green paper in the New Year. This will identify and address the root causes of poverty, building upon the two statutory indicators set out in the...
Lord Freud: Negotiating the details of the UK’s exit will take some time. The status of pensioners will need careful consideration and state pensions will be considered as part of the negotiations.
Lord Freud: Following a Call for Evidence last year we are exploring alternative methods to help employers in multi-employer schemes manage section 75 employer debts.
Lord Freud: Following a Call for Evidence last year we are exploring alternative methods to help employers in multi-employer schemes manage section 75 employer debts.
Lord Freud: The Government is committed to ensuring that employers are aware of the wealth of skills and experience that older workers bring to the workplace. There is also a clear business need; by the 2030s over 50s will comprise over half of the UK adult working age population and employers increasingly need to employ and retain the skills and experience of older workers longer to remain competitive...
Lord Freud: The table below shows health and safety incidents reported in the manufacture of refined petroleum products sector over the 5 years 2011/12-2015/16, for Great Britain. Each year is from 1 April to 31 March. Incident 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16p Fatal injuries to workers 5 - - - - Non-fatal injuries to workers 42 32 24 20 22 Dangerous Occurrences 47* 33...
Lord Freud: My Lords, the effect of Amendment 25 would be to widen the definition of administration charges for the purposes of Part 1 of the Bill, so that it is capable of including transaction costs. It may be helpful if I explain that we considered the inclusion of transaction costs when developing this policy. We concluded that the provision that has been made in the Bill under Clause 33, including...
Lord Freud: I shall take the opportunity to go through the matter of transfers because there has been a lot of discussion of it and this at the heart of it. I will pick up what we did in Committee, where the amendment from my noble friend Lord Flight referred to automatic transfers. I confirm that we will look to revisit automatic transfers once the market has absorbed the recent reforms. The next issue...
Lord Freud: I should make it clear to the noble Baroness that we looked closely at tail-end risk insurance. It works within the legislation and the regulator can accept it. We have not made it a major issue at this stage because, at the moment, no such insurance is available in the market. That may change, of course.
Lord Freud: I am saying that the clause is carefully drafted to allow tail-end insurance as part of the capital adequacy when the regulator looks at what is required. We are not in a position to do any more at this stage because that particular insurance is not available in the market. It may well become available in the market as people see the requirement.