Pension Protection Fund (Moratorium and Arrangements and Reconstructions for Companies in Financial Difficulty) Regulations 2020

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth Excerpts

Monday 14th September 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con) [V]]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Flight. I thank the Minister for setting out the regulations so clearly. I support the regulations; there is clearly a necessity for them and I am pleased that they seem to command support from around the Committee.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 introduced new and updated restructuring procedures—it was the first significant alteration of these since the 1980s. It included the new moratorium procedure and restructuring plan for companies, limited liability partnerships and charitable incorporated organisations. This procedure had been waiting in the wings for some time—it was nothing particularly to do with the Covid outbreak, although the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act was concerned with measures that were needed because of the outbreak. In consequence of this new process, these regulations are needed to make provision for the new regimes for pension funds and, specifically, the Pension Protection Fund so that it is able to exercise creditor rights.

I have several questions for the Minister. Is there a particular issue in relation to the time lag? The Explanatory Memorandum refers to a danger of something effectively falling through the cracks. There is reference to the need for the regulations to come into force as soon as possible after Royal Assent to minimise the gap in the application of the regime. Indeed, the Minister referred to the need to do so. What is the significance of this gap? Could the Minister clarify that? Does it apply to the other regulations the Minister referred to which are being delayed? I do not know how long the delay is and whether there is a greater danger to do with the gap referred to. Perhaps the Minister can also advise us about that.

My second point relates to publicity for these measures to ensure that pension funds are aware of these provisions and their impact. What is being done about publicity for the regulations?

I appreciate the reserved nature of these regulations, but given the interlink with other matters such as economic development, where there is a devolved dimension, can the Minister indicate how the department and the Government have engaged with the devolved Administrations to ensure that they are aware of the impact of these regulations and possible interlink with economic development?

Lastly, like the noble Baroness, Lady Drake, I wonder whether the Minister could give us a general overview of—a sort of preliminary canter through—the impact of these new procedures. I appreciate that it is early days yet, but perhaps she can indicate the impact that the new procedures have had and whether there is any particular concern, over and above the concern that we have been addressing today, regarding the impact on pension funds. The noble Baroness may need to write to us on these points, and I will certainly understand if that is the case. With that, I conclude with my wholehearted support for these regulations.