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Lord Vaux of Harrowden (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 22 April 2026

Debate

Pension Schemes Bill

Contribution

My Lords, I will briefly add my support to Motion A1 from the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles, to remove the mandation reserved power. On Monday, the Minister told us: “On the question on fiduciary duty, nothing in the Bill disapplies trustees’ existing duties of loyalty, prudence and acting in members’ best interests”. Her argument was that “the savers’ interest test allows a scheme to seek an exemption if it can show that compliance would cause material financial detriment to members”.—[Official Report, 20/4/26; col. 591.] I hope that noble Lords can see the rather fundamental flaw in that argument. Not causing “material financial detriment” is very different from acting in members’ best interests. Would the Minister put her pension savings into a fund that promised only that it would not cause material financial detriment? Of course she would not, but that, as she has said, is the standard to which the mandated asset allocation will be held. So, contrary to what she keeps claiming, the power to mandate asset allocation, even with the latest proposed constraints, quite clearly undermines the fiduciary duty of trustees to act in members’ best interests, and it has no place in pension scheme regulation.

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