Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

It is an area we must examine because for a company such as SR Technics this is a last resort. I am aware of people who were weeks away from retirement, having completed almost 40 years of service, and who will not get the full pension entitlement they were expecting six months ago.

The issue of purchase of annuities on an open market is something of which we must be aware. Currently, annuities are going for a very low rate and while some people's expectation in terms of their pensions was, say, an index of 100, they are now down to 50% of that. This is seriously impacting on many hundreds of workers at companies such as SR Technics.

I will have to press the amendment and I will be looking to those Members on the Government benches from the north side who know at first hand from talking to their constituents the difficulties being faced by many ex-workers who have seen their pensions being reduced significantly. If the Minister cannot see fit to include this technical change to the issue of insolvency, I will have to press this amendment.