Baroness Altmann (Non-Afl)

My Lords, I hope that noble Lords will understand as I go through my remarks that I believe my Amendments 33 and 33A are incredibly important to the future of defined benefit schemes and the aims of the Bill. Clause 10, which is about the restrictions of power to pay surplus, specifies in new subsection (2B)(c) a requirement for “the relevant actuary to give a certificate”. My Amendments 33 and 33A seek to add a strengthening of the trustee considerations of alternatives, rather than just having a certificate from the actuary. Amendment 33 would state that the actuary must confirm that the required technical actuarial standards work has been completed. Amendment 33A is about the trustees, who must ensure that they receive the report on the relative merits and consider alternative options such as buyout, superfunds or even a change of sponsor—I will come to that in a moment—before making payment of surplus. Why are these amendments required? There are standards in place, but I have been careful not to specify a number for the standard. I am talking about today’s technical actuarial standard, TAS 300, but of course these standards change—there is already version 1 and version 2—so the amendments aim to see that the standards are applied, taken notice of and fed into the consideration before any irreversible changes are made to the scheme. The trustees obviously have a fiduciary duty to consider members’ best long-term interests, but it seems that they do not already receive the depth of analysis required in many cases. The calculations done for the TAS 300 are not consistent; they are not applied consistently, according to the information that I have received from those in the market. There is no standard calculation methodology, but the DWP regulations that were changed recently require trustees to set funding and investment strategies. In my view, TAS 300, as it stands, should be part of that. Before any surplus is paid out, or a decision to buy annuities, enter a superfund or change sponsor is made, a proper risk assessment should be carried out looking carefully at the downside risks of any potential move versus the upside potential. The actuarial calculations to quantify these, which are specified in the Financial Reporting Council’s technical standards, do not necessarily become applied, and there are regulatory gaps. The technical standards require actuaries to provide TAS 300 comparative advice, but it is not clear how, when or whether the trustees must consider them. Consistent application of the assessment, in my view, could be significant in changing the standard mindsets about the best choice for the future of DB schemes. But, even today, there is no consistency, no agreed pro forma, no standard template and no detailed implementation guidance, even, from the Financial Reporting Council or other bodies. It has long been recognised that there is a lack of co-ordination and scrutiny of technical actuarial standards. The Kingman report in 2018, the Morris report and the Penrose report, dating back to 2000, all proposed urgent improvements but not much has changed. There are seven regulators reporting to three government departments. The Pensions Regulator and the PPF report to the DWP; the FRC and the CMA to the Department for Business and Trade; the PRA and the FCA to the Treasury; and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries is self-regulating. These regulators need to work together to address this massive pool of assets and national wealth. My amendments are an attempt to help this integration and move it along. Currently, there is over £1 trillion-worth of assets in these schemes. Since 2018, £350 billion of the value in defined benefit schemes has been transferred to insurance companies, many of which are now offshore. The scrutiny and regulatory control over those massive amounts of money is being diluted, and that has not been recognised. It is still considered that the gold standard for the future of defined benefit schemes is annuities, whether a buy-in or a buy-out; that is meant to be the no-risk option. That is not necessarily the case any more. The Bank of England itself has stated that there are risks in terms of the offshore insurers. This TAS 300 exercise could become part of a crucial element in deciding what the future of these schemes will be. Currently, the transfer of assets to insurance companies, which is so frequently being carried out—we are told that there may be another £500 billion in their sights from DB schemes in coming years—is handing the surplus assets of these schemes to the insurance companies. I argue that proper use of the TAS 300 exercise could help the surplus be used for national investments, for improving member benefits and for improving the resources of corporate UK. It is estimated that the scheme assets which are currently being transferred to insurers are invested in such a low-risk manner that their aim—this is the Pensions Regulator’s recommended strategy for low dependency to attain a return of gilts plus a half or so—as soon as the insurer takes these assets in, is to re-risk, invest in other assets, and sell the gilt and aim for a return of gilts plus, say, one and a half. Every £100 billion of assets transferred to an insurance company is the equivalent of about £200 million of scheme assets that are not going to members or employers but are transferring offshore. Stagecoach, which uses this TAS 300 exercise, actually managed to justify changing the sponsoring employer, while enhancing member benefits and paying extra out in surplus. That could be the way of the future if we get away from the current obsession, which states that the no-risk option is annuities and everything else is risky. This is a huge amount of money. These schemes have changed fundamentally. The outlook has changed fundamentally: we are no longer worried about deficits and employer covenants. We should be talking about using this national pool of wealth to boost Britain.