Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)

My Lords, people often wonder, speak and write about whether the House of Lords performs a valid function. This group of amendments justifies the House of Lords in one fell swoop. In this group, the Government are proposing 20 amendments to their own Bill, which shows that it had not been thought out properly in the beginning and we are now trying to amend it in your Lordships’ House—and amend it correctly, I add. I am not speaking against the amendments but noting that things are coming to us ill prepared; that there are 20 amendments makes that clear to see. This group has amendments that raise an important issue of fairness for members of the Pension Protection Fund and the Financial Assistance Scheme, particularly in relation to pre-1997 service, as well as technical government amendments, to which I just referred. There are amendments probing whether members should, in some circumstances, be allowed to move to a better supported arrangement or receive more meaningful redress where historic indexation has been lacking. On these Benches, our instinct is that member protection must remain the starting point, but protection should not become an unnecessary rigidity. There is a secure and properly funded route to a better outcome for members. The Government should at least be willing to consider this, and I hope that the Minister will say some positive words on it. On pre-1997 rights in particular, Parliament is entitled to ask whether the proposed remedy is full enough or whether fairness is justified. The noble Viscount, Lord Thurso, and the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, referred to Amendments 155 and 162, which both seek to do a similar thing. As I said, we are going to vote on the amendments with high numbers later; which one we will vote on, or whether we will vote on both, I do not know. However, we on these Benches agree with the principle of both. We shall see later whether we have had some success in persuading the Government to support these amendments.