Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker to explain the justification for the exemption from registration of EU pensions to which are attached conditions that a reasonable member of the public might regard as likely to influence their conduct as parliamentarians, as set out in paragraph 68 of the 10th edition of the Guide to the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Lords (September 2021).

Members are not required to register their pension arrangements. The Committee for Privileges and Conduct (as it then was) has considered several times over a number of years whether EU pensions should be singled out for registration, most recently after the 2016 referendum on European Union membership. The Committee did not recommend such a change to the rules, noting that (a) declaration of EU pensions would be required if the House debated liability for those pensions during exit negotiations, and (b) the perception that support of the EU is a condition of receipt of a pension from an EU institution results from a selective reading of Article 245 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.