Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd (CB)

My Lords, I briefly rise in support of the aims of the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman. I urge that we get on—as the noble Baronesses, Lady Hayman and Lady Penn, have so eloquently said. Listening to the debate, I do not think that there is any dispute that trustees have a fiduciary duty. No one wants to change that, as I understand it. But the refinements and an understanding of that duty in the modern age are unclear. In 2014 and 2017, the Law Commission tried to clarify these but did so in a way that ultimately did not help. In 2023, the Financial Markets Law Committee, which I chair—although I am speaking purely in a personal capacity—decided that we ought to look at this issue because it was of such fundamental importance to the operation of the financial markets and to make sure that people understood the implications of fiduciary duties as regards various factors that they could take into account. In a report that was produced two years and a few days ago, the Financial Markets Law Committee, which had assembled a group from right across the pensions industry and those interested, produced a report that was unanimous in the view that it was permissible, as an exercise of fiduciary duties, broadly to take into account sustainability and climate change risk. It has tried to set out in some detail the reasons why it reached that view and why it was important that this was understood.