Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab)

I have three points. First, I profoundly disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. To pin the blame just on politicians lets everyone else off scot-free. It is more like Murder on the Orient Express—everyone had a hand. My particular favourite is the accountants, who had a big hand; the way they defined accounting for pension costs was pernicious. Let us not blame just the politicians. Secondly, one cannot not be in favour of value for money. Obviously, we are all in favour of people getting value for money from their pension schemes. However, I think the Government underestimate the difficulty of providing something useful. As the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, pointed out, there are more than two or three factors to be taken into account. It is particularly difficult when one starts including prospective factors—how are these to be judged? It is very difficult, and it is not just the factors. The pension holders’ circumstances vary so widely. How can there be a simple, straightforward way of assessing whether someone has had value for money when their needs are so different from those of other people who are saving for their pension? Thirdly, I apologise for not being present in the Chamber to support the amendment in the name of the noble Viscount, Lord Thurso, in the previous group. I realise I am cheating here, but I was elsewhere. I had not realised that one of the groups had disappeared; otherwise, I would have been here and supported his amendment.