BHS pension fund examined in joint Committee session
6 May 2016
The Business, Innovation and Skills and Work and Pensions Committees hold a joint evidence session on the BHS pension fund. This is the first session in their respective inquiries into BHS.
- Watch Parliament TV: BHS
- Inquiry: The sale and acquisition of BHS
- Inquiry: Pension Protection Fund
- Business, Innovation and Skills Committee
Witnesses
Monday 9 May 2016, Grimond Room, Portcullis House
At 3.50pm
- Alan Rubenstein, Chief Executive, Pension Protection Fund;
- Lesley Titcomb, Chief Executive
- Nicola Parish, Director of Case Management, The Pensions Regulator
Purpose of the session
The session focuses on the BHS pension fund, currently running a £571 million deficit. The Committees are questioning whether pension regulation is adequate in the face of a situation like this, and what the impact covering a liability of this size will have on the Pension Protection Fund and all the other companies that subscribe to it.
Chairs' comments
Frank Field, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:
"A major aim of the Work and Pensions Committee representatives on Monday will be to test how adequately both organisations have carried out their duties to help protect members' pensions under the existing law, whether the existing law is inadequate and if so how should it be strengthened, or whether existing powers are adequate but were not fully exercised."
Iain Wright MP, Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Committee said:
"The BIS Committee inquiry focuses on the sale and acquisition of BHS but on Monday we will want to question the Pensions Regulator and the Pensions Protection Fund on their actions to protect members of the BHS pension fund. We would like to hear their views about whether there is enough protection for pension scheme members and whether the companies involved in this case looked after their interests properly."
Further information
Image: iStockphoto