Speeches by Blackman.

“There is an absolute veto power—a yes or no—but it is also about the power for trustees to be able to say to employers, “This is how we would like you to use the money.” There is less flexibility for trustees there. Once the money is handed over to the employers, there is no comeback for trustees if employers do not us…”

“Perhaps it reflects my ideological position that I am much more comfortable seeing this happen with local authorities than I am here, and I am looking for more guardrails. In fact, there are more guardrails around how local government pension schemes do this. It can be done pretty much only if it is to reduce employer …”

“What is the Government’s rationale for not including Scotland in new clause 22? Is it because the Scottish Government looked at the original Bill and had not seen the amendments? Or is it because the differential structures between Scotland and the rest of the UK mean that it would not help in the Scottish situation? I…”

“I thought clause 3 was being withdrawn.”

“The Government have requested to withdraw clause 3 and replace it with new clause 21. I am slightly confused as to how we got to the point where the Government did not make this decision in the first place, and how the Bill we discussed on Second Reading did not include the change being made to the Procurement Act, ins…”

“This is a genuine question that I do not know the answer to. Is reducing the contribution made by employers the only way that the funds can currently utilise a surplus, or are there other methods by which they can spend it?”

“I was thinking about how the amendment would work in practice in my local area. I live in the Aberdeen city council area. We are landlocked. We are surrounded by the Aberdeenshire council area. If those local authorities were in separate local government pension schemes, the effect of the amendment would be that Aberde…”

“I want to ask the Minister about the comments made on Tuesday in relation to the transparency already required of local government pension schemes. My understanding is that local government pension schemes are already pretty transparent, and that they are required to publish significant amounts of information. On the a…”

“I declare an interest as a holder of deferred membership of a local government pension scheme in Scotland, which will come into scope should the Government amendments go through, as I imagine they will. First, I thank the Government for working with the Scottish Government to make these changes and for taking the decis…”

“Have the Government done an equality assessment on how cancelling family reunion differentially impacts those from ethnic minority backgrounds?”

“Q Do the majority of trustees already take into account what they think scheme members would think about certain investments anyway, or about ESG, for example? Charlotte Clark: Almost certainly.”

“Q In relation to private assets and the investment in them, is the balance between carrots and sticks correct in the Bill, or should more carrots, for example, be provided to encourage that investment? Tim Fassam: That is another very good question. As the previous witnesses said, it is important to ensure that there i…”

“Q Thank you very much for all your hard work on this, for your passion and for how articulate you are, particularly for those people that cannot be there and cannot make the case themselves. I really appreciate it. I absolutely agree with what you are saying on indexation; I think it is incredibly important. You were t…”

“Q I have two questions. If the Minister could just answer “yes” to the first one, that would be great. The Regulatory Policy Committee has said in its assessment of the impact assessment that the monitoring and evaluation plan is weak—it has used that word. It has said that more detailed plans are needed on monitoring …”

“Q The other question is in relation to the fact that there are 273 amendments—240 normal amendments and 30 new clauses—which we got yesterday. I have raised my concerns with the Minister privately about this, but I want to say publicly that this is a really big issue. It is very difficult for us to read 273 amendments …”

“I was on that one as well. Torsten Bell: We have all made life choices. The thing that I am trying to avoid—and the reason why there are so many at this stage—is what has happened with other Bills, such as the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill in the last Parliament. I do not want to table loads of amendment…”

“If the Government amendments in relation to the local government pension scheme go through, I have an interest as I am a deferred member of a local government pension scheme in Scotland.”

“Q There is a question around surplus release, and the power of trustees in relation to surplus release. It makes sense that there should be surplus release, but trustees may feel under pressure from employers to release the surplus when it might not be the right thing for scheme members. Do you think the Bill has got t…”

“Q I have a question about the balance of decision making. Trustees are obviously required to steward and grow assets on behalf of scheme members. This Bill slightly changes the priorities in relation to value for money. There is potential for future mandation, in that it basically allows the Government, or the regulato…”

“Q I am pleased to hear you talking about what scheme members want, not just in terms of the return that they are expecting, but also the projects that are invested in. My question is about consolidation and local concerns that people might have. For example, they may not want a wind farm invested in because they are wo…”