Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab)

I support the amendment from the noble Viscount, Lord Thurso. I think that anyone who looks at the detail, as he has done, will be convinced that somewhere in this series of events there has been a serious injustice. There is no question of that. These people have suffered financially through no fault of their own. Getting to the bottom of it is difficult. Whatever “a review” means, I think it is appropriate that there should be some form of investigation. The problem they face is that the existing methods of investigation—in particular, the Pensions Ombudsman—just do not work in this case, so a bespoke review is required. I have to emphasise that nothing I say should be taken as a criticism of professional colleagues and certainly should not be taken as constituting professional advice. But the injustice is clear. Other cases have been quoted by those who have suffered an injustice where the Government have taken action to support members of other, not directly analogous, but similar schemes, and this only increases their sense of injustice. I urge my noble friend the Minister to indicate in her reply that the Government’s mind is not totally closed on this issue, because there is undoubtedly unfairness involved.