(Friday 5th December) Following Report stage and the debate in the House of Commons on the Pension Schemes Bill, Catherine Howarth OBE, Chief Executive of ShareAction, said:
“The Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP
worked with ShareAction on the tabling of Amendment NC17 and presenting this
amendment to the House of Commons. 33 other MPs from multiple parties also
added their names to this amendment.
"The amendment, if passed into law, would clarify the fiduciary duties of
UK pension schemes. This overdue reform could unlock significant investment in
the domestic economy of the UK by giving explicit legal permission to schemes
to consider factors such as their members’ standards of living, members’ views,
and the impacts of scheme investments when making investment decisions."
ShareAction welcomes the commitment made by the Pensions Minister in the House
of Commons to legislate to address the confusion over legal duties of pension
schemes and their trustees.
Statutory guidance, as the Minister has proposed, is necessary. However, the statutory guidance proposed by government would not apply to the whole range of pension schemes and would not provide legal clarity for schemes that wish to act on these issues. Furthermore, statutory guidance need not be followed and on its own is at risk of potential misuse by a future government. Now that government has agreed to change the law we need to go further than guidance alone.
The Pension Schemes Bill will pass to the House of Lords for their consideration. ShareAction will continue to push for legislation backed by statutory guidance, as proposed in Amendment NC17.
ENDS
