Speeches by Bell.

“That is a very important question. We need to make sure that those who will retire in 2050 can look forward to the same kind of comfortable retirements that many—not all, but many—of today’s pensioners enjoy, and the honest answer is that we are not on track for that at the moment. This Government are taking a two-stag…”

“The hon. Member will know that a judicial review claim has been filed, and that we cannot comment on live litigation. There are legitimate views on raises in the state pension age, particularly the 2011 acceleration put in place by the coalition Government, but the investigation that is being considered by the Parliame…”

“I can give the hon. Member the assurance he asks for, which is that this Labour Administration, like all Labour Administrations, are on the side of pensioners. Of course, he only defected earlier this year, so he was a Conservative MP during all 14 years of the Conservative party’s disastrous last Government—a Governme…”

“The Government are committed to supporting British pensioners to enjoy a comfortable retirement after a lifetime of work. That is why we are raising the state pension throughout this Parliament via the triple lock. That saw the state pension increase by 4.8% in April, boosting the level of the new state pension by £575…”

“I am incredibly hopeful that this Government are doing a much better job than the previous Government in supporting pensioners, not only by driving up the state pension, but by getting on with the much delayed reforms to our defined-contribution pension system, which the previous Government left on ice. We are also com…”

“I recognise the hon. Gentleman’s point, and we need to fund the NHS to stop letting down older generations. Taxes have consequences that affect the whole population, including pensioners. The Chancellor has set out that the level of the personal allowance will remain above the level of the new and the basic state pensi…”

“My hon. Friend is a consistent campaigner on these issues in this place and in our regular meetings, and I always learn something from those conversations. I am not going forward with exactly the suggestion he brings forward, but I agree that there is more we can do, not least to provide clarity for trustees. We are wo…”

“My hon. Friend and I have discussed this issue on a number of occasions, and she has been an important campaigner for pensioners in her constituency who have been affected by it. Although three quarters of schemes provide some degree of pre-1997 indexation, there is a very real impact on members of schemes that do not—…”

“The background to this is that employment is up 920,000 since the election. As I just said, there are structural challenges when it comes to youth unemployment. I gently refer the Tories to the fact that we saw a 250,000 increase in the number of those not in education, employment or training in the last three years th…”

“My hon. Friend has done significant campaigning on this issue in recent months, and we all know why. The Government obviously inherited the student loan system situation, and we have already acted to cap the interest rate on student loans. We look forward to reading her Committee’s report, and, I am sure, to her ongoin…”

“UK employment levels are strong by historic and international standards. The hon. Member is right, though, to highlight a structural challenge when it comes to young people being out of work and, for that matter, education. That is why we have committed £2.5 billion over the next three years to the youth guarantee, hel…”

“The best thing I can do is to say that, as I said before, we are in the final stages of the process, and we hope to update the Committee in due course because it has an important role to play.”

“That is nonsense, as you are well aware. There is a reason why it says “right honourable” on your nameplate. At one level, it has not changed very much since what you experienced, if I am honest about that. There are some specific changes around how DEL budgeting works; you will be aware of the DEL review and some of t…”

“I am slightly reluctant to tell someone who was a more senior Treasury Minister than I was how the process works.”

“The Select Committee inquiry is a good and important one because it is good to be clear about what the role of the OBR is, and it is good to review after what is a substantial period of time since the 2011 Act. When we are being clear about what its role is and what its role is not, you would step back and say that the…”

“To some degree, you have answered your question. We want to make sure we get the best possible candidate. As the Chancellor said to you on a previous occasion, these are unusual circumstances. We have never had a resignation of a chair before. That led to a period before the advert came out in February. Since then, we …”

“The way I think about it is to encourage people to start from what the OBR is doing. I have set out my view on what that is. That is consistent with the Act. It was generally a matter of cross-party consensus. It is not right to say that the OBR has more responsibilities than all fiscal councils around the world. It ha…”

“I am definitely in favour of opposition parties and government parties having scrutiny of their pre-election plans. The OBR should not be the organisation doing that. Lots of other bodies can do that as well.”

“The Committee has an important role in this process. That was set out in the legislation. It has exercised that twice in the past. It absolutely has the right to exercise it in the case of this. All I would say is that the Act is equally clear that the OBR is operating fully within the Act as it stands now, with two me…”

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Pensions (Abolition of Lifetime Allowance Charge etc) Regulations 2026. I will briefly take the Committee through the background and purpose of these draft regulations, which relate to the abolition of the pensions lifetime allowance. At the 2023 spring Budget,…”