Lord Livermore (Lab)

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to her expertise and the consistency of her campaigning in this area. I fully understand the points that she is raising and recognise the important role that investment companies play in providing access to private markets. She talked about the recent Mansion House accord. I hope she agrees that the industry is moving in the right direction in diversifying its investments in the Mansion House accord, with 17 of the largest workplace pension providers having voluntarily committed to investing at least 10% of their defined contribution main default funds in private markets by 2030, with at least half of that invested in UK private assets. I understand the noble Baroness’s concern about the scope of the proposed reserve power in the Bill. The approach that we have taken quite deliberately is to ensure that the powers are suitably targeted and contain guard-rails. They are not intended to be open-ended but should be capable of serving as a backstop to the commitments that pension providers themselves have made through the Mansion House accord and will be used only if we consider that the industry has not made sufficient progress on its own. None the less, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her constructive engagement on this issue and happy to continue to discuss it with her. As we take the Bill through Parliament, her representations and those of the wider sector will be considered alongside our broader policy objectives. Our aim remains to ensure that the reserve power is effective and proportionate, and delivers for pension savers and for the UK economy.