The Government has been accused of making up pension reform on the hoof by Labour MP Stephen Timms.
The shadow minister for employment was speaking during the Pension Schemes Bill’s third reading in the House of Commons on 26 November.
Addressing Steve Webb, the pensions minister, Mr Timms criticised the government for including 33 new clauses and 72 amendments to the bill originally proposed.
Mr Timms said: “The minister knows very well that this is not a field in which haste is fruitful.
“He attempted in his response to one intervention to make a virtue of the fact that he was picking these things up in real time.
“What he actually means is making it up on the hoof. I do not think that a good way to legislate on pensions. The scope for mistakes in drafting technical measures such as these is too great.”
Mr Webb rebutted criticism about the amendments, which included a request for an apology from Treasury select committee member Andrew Love.
The minister said many amendments were needed to reflect the new pension freedoms which were announced in this year’s budget.
He said: “The entire second group of amendments relates to measures that were not envisaged when the bill was published but which implement Budget measures.
“In other circumstances, there would have been a separate bill, but as we are in the final session of a Parliament, everything has been on an accelerated timetable.”
Mr Webb said although the amendments had been tabled at a relatively late stage, they reflected extensive consultation over a period of years.
He added: “In most cases, they are not new policies but are simply technical changes to implement a policy intent that has been well-known for some time.”
The bill was read a third time and passed. It had its first reading in the House of Lords on 27 November and will have its second on 16 December.
| Background Box |
The Pension Schemes Bill introduces three categories of private pension: * Defined benefit, which offers a full promise of what a member’s income will be. * Shared risk, which offers a partial promise of the outcome from the scheme. * Defined contribution, which offers no promise but shares the risks. |
Adviser view
Bob Wilson, director of Norwich-based Green Sky Wealth, said: “I have some sympathy with the idea that pension reform has not been completely thought through, but overall I think the pension freedoms are a good thing.”