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Pensions; Trident and foreign affairs; Daylight Saving Time - your views welcome....

Posted by Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, at 10:32, Tue 23 January 2007:

I am writing with my first email newsletter for 2007. I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year.

Pension reform

This week the House of Commons debated plans for reforms to the pension system, which will have an impact on pensions for at least a generation. The Pensions Bill had its “2nd reading” on Tuesday, and was actually agreed without a vote. Although there will no doubt be votes on some of the details when the Bill is discussed in a committee, the extent of all-party support for what are major reforms reflects the extensive consultation that has taken place since the original report of the “Turner Commission” on the subject.

The plans are still basically the same : • a restoration of the link between pensions and earnings in the next Parliament; • the introduction of new personal pension accounts into which all employees will automatically be enrolled unless they are in another scheme or specifically opt-out; • the reduction of the number of years it takes to build a full State Pension, which will bring significant benefits to women and carers; • and, as part of the way of paying for the above, a gradual increase – over a 40 year period – in the retirement age, eventually to 68 (with the first increase, in 2024, by one year to 66).

I’ll be organising another event in the spring to provide more information about the proposals, but if you would like more information, do get in touch.

A few days earlier the House of Commons had also voted through other proposals concerning the welfare system, when it gave a 2nd reading to the Welfare Reform Bill. This legislation will replace incapacity benefits with a new benefit, the Employment and Support Allowance. The aim of the Bill is to get more people who have been long-term unemployed back into work. Once again, after considerable consultation and some changes, the final proposals have received a general welcome, both within Parliament and outside.

Foreign affairs and Trident

Next week will see a debate on Iraq and the Middle East. This will be an “adjournment” debate in which there is an opportunity for MPs to express their views, but without an actual vote on the issue. I spoke on this issue recently in the Foreign Affairs section of the debate on the “Queen’s Speech” after the recent official opening of Parliament, and as a result I will almost certainly not get a chance to speak again on the same subject so soon. However, I did speak on the subject at some length in the earlier debate, and if you’re interested in knowing what I said then, you can see my speech at http://www.marklazarowicz.org.uk/parliament/speeches2006/11.22.htm. Obviously I’m very interested to know the views of local people on this important issue.

Other issues of major international significance which Parliament will be discussing in the next few weeks will be the government’s proposals for renewal of the Trident submarines; and the plans for a Climate Change Bill. I plan to organise local events in the constituency to get the views of local people on both these issues – if you’ve got views, or would like details of these events when they are held, do let me know.

Joining a new Committee in Parliament

In the House of Commons, I’ve just become a member of the “Environmental Audit Committee”. As its name suggests, this committee aims to look at how effectively environmental issues are taken into account in government policy across the board. At my first meeting earlier this week, we heard from Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the recent “Stern report” on the economics of climate change.

I’m still a member of the House of Commons Modernisation Committee. If you would like more information on the work of either of these committees, you can find information about the Environmental Audit Committee at http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/environmental_audit_committee.cfm and the Modernisation Committee at http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/select_committee_on_modernisation_of_the_house_of_commons.cfm

Darker mornings or lighter evenings?

Parliament is just about to begin its annual work of considering Private Members’ Bills, which are a chance for back-bench MPs to make proposals for new laws. This year, I didn’t win a place in the ballot to decide which MPs can put forward legislation, but there are still a number which will be relevant to Scotland. One of these will debated next week (26th January) when there will be a move to introduce “Double Summer Time”, where clocks would be changed to mean one more hour of darkness in the morning, with (obviously!) one hour more of light in the evening. The Tory MP who has made the proposal has suggested that the Scottish Parliament could decide that Scotland could opt-out of such a change – which would mean, of course, that Scotland would be in a different time-zone from the rest of the UK! If you’ve got any views – for or against – this idea, I’d be interested in hearing from you.

This is just a summary of some of the issues in which I’ve recently been involved in Parliament. If you would like more information about these or any other issues – national, international, or local – or have any views which you’d like me to know about, please do visit my website www.marklazarowicz.org.uk or send me an email to: mark@marklazarowicz.org.uk.

Mark Lazarowicz Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North & Leith