Member

That was last November; we have had more since then. There is a real problem with private equity, and my noble friend’s conclusion was that the Government are playing with fire. By effectively endorsing private equity as a suitable investment for pension funds, they will be on the hook when the whole thing collectively or individually goes wrong. People will point and say, “The Government said, in an Act of Parliament, that investing in this private equity was a good thing to do, and it’s all gone south. It’s their fault”. I do not always agree with my noble friend Lord Sikka, but he said the next crash will come from private equity. We have a serious issue here. Why are the Government adopting the line of effectively endorsing this particular investment when it is, at best, questionable?