European Union (Accessions) Bill

House of Commons, 1 November 2005.

Geoff Hoon (Labour, Ashfield)

I beg to move,

That Sir Patrick Cormack be discharged as a member of the House of Commons Commission under the House of Commons (Administration) Act 1978, and David Maclean be added.

This first motion and the other three motions relating to appointments are entirely routine, but it may be for the convenience of the House if I briefly set out the circumstances underlying each one. I will then turn to the motion in the name of the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley) relating to the House of Commons Members' Fund. I hope that colleagues in all parts of the House will agree that the motions are uncontroversial and can certainly be supported.

The motion relating to the House of Commons Commission flows from the decision by one of its three Back-Bench members, the hon. Member for South Staffordshire (Sir Patrick Cormack), to retire because of other commitments. He has given strong and consistent service to the Commission. We thank him for that and wish him well in his work as Chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. He is to be replaced by the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (David Maclean). I am sure that Members will have the greatest confidence in the wisdom and experience that the right hon. Gentleman will bring to the deliberations of not only the Commission but the Members Estimate Committee, given that membership of one flows from membership of the other. Of course, it is fair to say that his contribution to the House in recent years has been notable for its silence. Although we will all acknowledge that it is slightly unusual to have the Opposition Chief Whip filling a Back-Bench place on the Commission, we also understand that this is likely to be temporary only, until the Conservative party leadership contest has been settled—a subject that we are of course all fascinated by.

I turn to the Public Accounts Commission motion. Under the National Audit Act 1983, seven of the nine members of the Commission are appointed by the House. Two of its members in the last Parliament—Mr. Bill O'Brien and Mr. Roy Beggs—are no longer Members of the House following the general election, thereby leaving the Commission two short of its full complement. The motion therefore proposes that their places be filled by my hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Dr. Palmer) and the hon. Member for South Antrim (Dr. McCrea). Under the motion, the hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne) is replaced by the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Mr. Bacon), in recognition of the fact that the former is now a member of the shadow Cabinet. I pay tribute to the work of all three colleagues and ex-colleagues. I know that the House will have full confidence in the contributions of the new appointments.

The parliamentary contributory pension fund and House of Commons Members' Fund traditionally have an overlapping body of trustees. Two of the present trustees on both funds, Mr. John Burnett and Mr. Tony Colman, have now left the House. In addition, Lord Stewartby, who is the pensioner trustee for the pension fund, is retiring from the post. I am sure the whole House will want me to thank them—and, indeed, all the trustees who carry out time-consuming and sensitive work on our behalf—for all that they have done. Following discussions in the normal way, it is proposed that they be replaced by the hon. Member for North Devon (Nick Harvey), my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe (Mr. Betts) and Lord Naseby. Again, I am sure that colleagues will want me to express our gratitude to them for taking on this work.

The House of Commons Members' Fund appropriation motion will be moved formally by the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden, as chairman of the Members' Fund trustees. I will leave him to speak to it in more detail. In essence, it provides for the fund to have access to the Members' estimate grant in aid and Members' contributions, for the purpose of paying discretionary awards to former Members and their widows or widowers. It is required annually, and I ask the House to support this, and all the other, motions.

Chris Grayling (Conservative, Epsom and Ewell)

I have nothing much to add to the Leader of the House's remarks, except to pay brief tribute to the work of those being discharged from Committees. I pay particular tribute to the work that my hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire (Sir Patrick Cormack) did on behalf of the House of Commons Commission, of which he has been a distinguished member for the past few years.

David Heath (Liberal Democrat, Somerton and Frome)

We concur.

Peter Lilley (Conservative, Hitchin and Harpenden)

I shall briefly explain the purpose of the motion relating to the House of Commons Members' Fund, and the purpose of the fund itself. There are two kinds of beneficiaries of the fund, all of whom are either elderly members of it, or their dependants. Recurring as-of-right payments are made to those who are not entitled to a parliamentary pension because they left the House before 1964, or because, as widows or widowers of former Members, they have their small parliamentary contributory pension fund benefits topped up. In addition, some beneficiaries receive discretionary payments because of hardship and their personal circumstances. The discretionary payments can be recurring in order to improve a person's standard of living; more frequently, they are one-off grants to improve quality of life, or to facilitate a minor home adaptation.

The fund currently has some 120 beneficiaries. The average value of the recurring payments is a modest £2,000 per annum. A handful of one-off grants are made each year, with an average value of about £5,000 per annum. Such relatively small sums can make a big difference in some circumstances.

The fund is governed by a variety of Acts of Parliament that stipulate the basis on which payments can be made and the amounts payable. The legislation is exceptionally complex and not understood by anybody, including the fund's trustees. We undoubtedly ought to regularise the legislation at some future stage, and the trustees hope to work with others, including the Leader of the House, to do so in the coming period. But the legislation does require that we appropriate the contributions that all Members make each month, and the £215,000 a year that the Treasury contributes, in order to make such money available to pay for the grants that we make to Members as of right, and on a discretionary basis. This motion gives effect to that, and I hope that the House will support it.

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my fellow trustees and the departing trustees, and to welcome the new trustees to the fund.

Eric Martlew (Labour, Carlisle)

I shall not keep the House long. Since we last appointed a retired Member of the House as a trustee, the retired Members association has been set up. In future, we should perhaps consult the association and more widely in order to establish who the pension trustee should be. As it stands, we could well be contravening the terms of the Pensions Act 2004. I do not ask that a change be made tonight, but I do ask the Leader of the House to take cognisance of my comments.

Geoff Hoon (Labour, Ashfield)

With the leave of the House, I shall deal with the one point that has been raised. Nominations to replace retiring trustees have come forward in the usual way. In fact, there is no legal obligation to consult any particular organisation, but we do take account of that point when there are new regulations under the scheme. A retired Members association would be an appropriate body to consult in such circumstances. I hope that my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Mr. Martlew) recognises, however, that the trustees' work is quite onerous. I pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley) and disagree with his modesty. He does understand these arrangements, as I have learned to my cost in correspondence with him. It is important that the House have such expertise available to it, and I pay tribute to him and to the other trustees who do such important work for us.

Given that the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) set such a good example, I shall not detain the House any longer.

Question put and agreed to.