Financial Assistance Scheme (Qualifying Pension Scheme Amendments) Regulations 2014

Lord McKenzie of Luton Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2014 Grand Committee

[Lord Bates (Con)]

My Lords, I am satisfied that these regulations are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Financial Assistance Scheme provides financial assistance to members of certain occupational pension schemes who have lost a significant part of their pensions as a consequence of their scheme winding up or being underfunded. Generally, the FAS is limited to schemes that began to wind up before 6 April 2005. This is because the Pension Protection Fund deals mainly with schemes with insolvent employers from that date. However, schemes have been discovered which, for various reasons, fall between the two schemes: they do not qualify for the PPF, but they cannot get access to the FAS. There has been a long-standing principle that schemes should enter the PPF only if they have been subject to all the protection provisions such as funding and employer debt, and have been subject to the PPF levy. Nevertheless, successive Governments have accepted that it is not reasonable to leave members with neither assistance from the FAS nor compensation from the PPF simply because the qualifying events did not happen in a specific order. These regulations deal with one of these situations.

In order for a scheme to qualify for entry to the PPF there must be a qualifying insolvency event on or after 6 April 2005 relating to what is known as the “statutory employer”. To be such an employer, you must employ at least one active member of the scheme. In 2009, a scheme applied to be considered for the PPF. However, it was discovered that while the employer attached to that scheme did become insolvent in 2009, it was not the statutory employer. On further investigation it was found that the actual statutory employer became insolvent in 2002, before the PPF was established. Unfortunately, as this scheme did not begin to wind up until 2009, it is also unable to look to the FAS for help. Rather than leave the members uncovered, the Government have decided to extend the coverage of the FAS to encompass this scheme and any other scheme in these circumstances. That is what these regulations do.

Specifically, the regulations extend the FAS qualifying conditions to cover schemes which began to wind up between 23 December 2008 and before these regulations come into force, where the employer ceased to be a statutory employer before 10 June 2011, and where the employer became insolvent before 6 April 2005. These dates may appear to be very specific and perhaps I should explain why they have been chosen. The first condition of winding up between 23 December 2008 and before these regulations come into force reflects the fact that schemes which commence wind up before 23 December 2008 due to an insolvency event prior to 6 April 2005 are already catered for in the FAS regulations. The second condition is that the employer must have ceased to be a statutory employer before 10 June 2011. This date is the date that we announced our intention to make the extension. It was important to limit the potential scope of the extension in this case to prevent any incentives for employers to break links with schemes that they were supporting. The third condition of the insolvency event occurring before 6 April 2005 prevents overlap with the PPF qualifying conditions.

I hope that I have explained that these regulations are designed to ensure that members receive assistance from the FAS and I commend them to the Committee. I beg to move.

[Lord McKenzie of Luton (Lab)]

My Lords, perhaps I may put two brief questions to the Minister. There is no impact assessment attached to these regulations, but my recollection is that the FAS is funded from the public purse and not, as is the case for the Pension Protection Fund, from the levy. It may be that it is just de minimis in the scheme of things because we are dealing with only one identified scheme at the moment. However, I would be interested to know what the costs of this in terms of additional FAS spending might be. Perhaps the Minister might take this chance to update us on what the annual ongoing costs of the FAS currently are. Can the Minister also clarify for me, in relation to the particular scheme that has been identified, whether it had been paying the protection levy? If not, why was it outside of that?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his explanation and my noble friend Lord McKenzie for his, as always, insightful questions. I am very pleased to see the Government’s ongoing support of the Pension Protection Fund set up by the previous Labour Government. The PPF has made a substantial difference to people’s lives. As regards schemes including Woolworths, MG Rover and Turner and Newall, the members would all have had much lower pensions had it not been for the PPF and the Financial Assistance Scheme. I also welcome the Government’s continued support for that scheme.

I would like to ask a couple of specific questions. First, I recognise that the Minister is trying to close a specific loophole and obviously the changes relate to a particular case. I must confess that the Opposition are therefore unsighted on some aspects of this. Following on from the question of my noble friend Lord McKenzie, can he explain a bit more about the Government’s thinking in deciding to plump for the FAS as opposed to the PPF, rather than leaving the members of a scheme ineligible for either, because that would seem to be the key question?

Secondly, obviously, the Government have not brought forward an impact assessment for these regulations. The Explanatory Note was helpful in explaining the long gap between the consultation process and these being brought forward, but will the Minister confirm that there is a timescale for further consolidation of the regulations on which the Government consulted in 2011, and that an impact assessment will be brought forward to accompany those changes?

[Lord Bates]

I am grateful for those questions. In terms of context, we are talking about a specific scheme with a number of members—the George and Harding pension scheme. To answer the point made by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, the scheme had not been contributing to, or paying, the PPF levy and therefore was not able to claim under that procedure. Therefore, we are changing the relevant dates so that we do not break the contributory principle of the PPF but ensure that financial assistance is made available. The noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, is as astute as ever and I am sure that the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, as a former adviser in Her Majesty’s Treasury, will also be aware that Her Majesty’s Treasury did seek to have some idea of what the impact would be on the Exchequer. The estimated full cost of the FAS contribution is £600,000, which comes out of the Exchequer over time because, obviously, that will be the way that people will be compensated as and when the funds will need to be drawn down. That is also the reason for the specific dates because we are trying to cope with a specific scheme rather than giving an open-ended commitment. Having demonstrated this, I hope that we can point to the fact that, should similar gaps in certain schemes arise in the future, we will look very carefully at them without giving any cast iron guarantee.

[Lord McKenzie of Luton]

Can the Minister clarify whether the £600,000 is the net present value?

[Lord Bates]

That is the net present value of the cost of the scheme. Annual ongoing cost differs depending on the schemes taken in. I do not know how helpful that is but we try to be as fulsome as we can. Has the relevant firm been paying the protection levy? I have covered that point but that does not mean that it gets entry into the scheme. It was thought that the employer supporting the scheme was a statutory employer. I think that is the point we are dealing with here—the definition of a statutory employer. It was realised that it was not only after investigation. When will we consolidate the FAS regulations? As noble Lords know, there is a great deal happening in the pensions area, to be continued on Centre Court tomorrow, I think. This requires the department to prioritise its resources. The consolidation of the FAS regulations remains on the department’s work plan but I cannot give a definite date as to when the draft consolidation regulations will be laid before Parliament. I am grateful for the probing questions I have been asked. The noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, looks as though she wants to come back in.