Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Dan Tomlinson and Sarah Jones(1 week, 6 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Sarah Jones
My hon. Friend is right to point out that there are about 40,000 people in this scheme. About 5,000 of them are women, unlike the mineworkers’ pension scheme, of which the vast majority of members are men. The two schemes are different and operate in a different way, because in 2015 the BCSSS had run two deficits and was at risk, so there had to be an intervention from Government. The two schemes operate differently and have to be looked at differently. The Government Actuary’s Department team is working its way through the mineworkers’ pension process, and we are now working with officials on this issue. I am meeting officials later today to talk about it more to see what we need to do. I stress that this is very complex—we are talking about billions of pounds-worth of assets—but we are absolutely receptive to calls from the trustees, and I will meet with them again soon.
Dan Tomlinson (Chipping Barnet) (Lab)