Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)

My Lords, this is the first time I have been able to speak on the Bill. I am delighted to follow my noble friend, who I still consider the pension tsar and who is so knowledgeable in this field. I apologise for being absent when Amendments 132 and 133 were reached; unfortunately, with all the business in the House, there are inevitable clashes, and we cannot be in two places at one time. I thank the ABI and others who have briefed me in advance of the Bill proceedings. I have to say, I agree with their conclusions. I believe that they are right when they say that the Government are right that it is not necessary to mandate asset allocation by pension funds. This amendment is intended as a probing amendment for debating purposes; I am sure that the debate will represent the broad consideration of views in Committee this afternoon. The aim, really, is to provide reassurance to pension providers by capping the mandatory asset allocation at a total of, say, 10%, which is a figure that my noble friend Lady Coffey and I independently happened upon; I also added 5% for geographical locations, such as the UK, as a proportion either of total assets or of a subset of assets. It is true to say that the industry is generally opposed to mandating asset allocation at all. This amendment would provide some reassurance, which is what I shall seek from the Minister when she comes to respond to this debate, to pension providers of that by capping the mandatory asset allocation to a total of these two figures—10% and 5%—as a proportion either of total assets or of a subset of assets. There has been much talk of the Mansion House Accord this afternoon. I would like to chip in also and say that this power would align with the accord, which had widespread support across the industry—as well as from government, as it was supported by the Chancellor. I understand that the accord was led jointly by the ABI, Pensions UK and the City of London Corporation. It followed extensive discussion between the industry and the Pensions Minister and had a 17 signatories, who committed “to the ambition of allocating at least 10% to private markets across all main DC default funds by 2030; and … within that, at least 5%”— and I have now lost my briefing, so I am completely at sea. I hope that I have given a little taste of where we are. I am not saying that these are the definitive figures; I am just throwing into the wash that this afternoon would be a good opportunity to give some reassurance to the pension providers in the way I and my noble friend Lady Coffey have sought to do.