Pension Schemes Bill

Alistair Carmichael Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 7th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Torsten Bell]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question and for her oversight of all our pensions, which I think is reassuring. [Laughter.] Sorry; it is reassuring! I will come directly to her point, because I know that is one question that hon. Members on both sides of the House will want to raise. Let me just say that the Bill explicitly recognises the fiduciary duty of trustees towards their members.

[Mr Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD)]

In the last Parliament, a number of us raised concerns about the administration of defined-benefit schemes by, among others, BP, Shell and Hewlett-Packard. It was obvious at that stage—I think this view was held by his right hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disability, who was then the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee—that one of the root causes of the problem was insufficient independence and oversight by defined-benefit pension trustees. What is there in this Bill that will protect the position of pensioners in their retirement under those schemes?

[Torsten Bell]

The right hon. Member invites me to skip quite a long way forward in my speech, and it is a long speech.