L

Lord Katz (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 March 2026

Debate

Pension Schemes Bill

Contribution

I say simply that if we took that approach to all legislation, we would end up with Bills hundreds or thousands of pages long, because we might pile on more amendments simply because they are well-intentioned. It is important that we are clear about the legislation that we are drafting, so that people in the pensions sector, lawyers, et cetera, can properly interpret what we intend—by any legislation, not just this Bill. When we say that something is superfluous, we do not add it in: I think that is a perfectly decent criterion by which to legislate. The noble Lord, Lord Gove, shakes his head. I say to him gently that both this and the previous Government have had a lot of criticism for large Bills and there is always an onus on us to have slimmer legislation. We will not get slimmer legislation by accepting willy-nilly amendments that we think are superfluous.

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