Editorial: The MPs’ pension scheme can rest easy, it does not look like they will have to pay out to Frank Field any time soon.
The veteran member for Birkenhead and chair of the Work and Pensions Committee was in classic form last week, from branding the big four professional services firms “vultures”, to urging the Pensions Regulator to get “off their backsides”.
With further interrogation of Carillion directors and regulators scheduled for this week, it is little wonder one pensions professional now drily refers to Field as the one-man “sheriff of pensions”.
Giving evidence to the select committee must be a daunting challenge; a trial by media where the only guarantee is of leaving with a reputation in tatters. So is all this healthy for the pensions system?
Field’s policy suggestions are usually the work of an ideologue rather than a pragmatist – former head of the Pension Protection Fund Alan Rubenstein recently admitted that mandatory clearance of corporate activity was unworkable.
But the select committee’s role is not, and should never be, to set policy. It is a body set up to scrutinise policy and hold institutions to account, a function in which Field and his colleagues excel.
Take data quality for example. Field excoriated the British Steel Pension Scheme and regulator for providing members with incomplete benefit statements, and rightly so.
The regulator’s response is likely to be more measured, taking into account the difficulty of cleaning data for schemes set up a half century ago. Fines will be used as a last resort – see our article for an investigation into Barnet’s data woes.
Surely this marriage of idealism and pragmatism can only be positive? If the outcome of the select committee’s defined benefit investigations is a more dynamic regulator, not armed with “nuclear” powers but ready to use what it does have, then members and corporations will be well served.
The great shame is that the Department for Work and Pensions has not found a pragmatist willing to stick in the minister’s job long enough to be a match for Field. Until it does, expect the sheriff to remain in control of pensions policy.
Angus Peters is an associate editor at Pensions Expert. You can follow him on Twitter @peters_angus and the team @pensions_expert.
