Current Petitions

Members will note that I have received a letter from the Deputy Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning in relation to petition PE500, on the Scottish Transport Group pension funds, in response to various points that were raised with him following our meeting on 8 October. Copies of that letter were circulated to committee members on their arrival this morning, as they were not available in advance of the meeting. The letter was received only yesterday, so it was not possible to consider it as a formal agenda item. In it, the minister states that he is satisfied that a reasonable deal for the STG pensioners has been negotiated with Her Majesty's Treasury under the prevailing circumstances and that"the £126 million now available for distribution provides for broad comparability with the payments being received by the NBC pensioners, taking into account the personal tax position."He also says that"the average payments are approximately £7,000 in England and £8,000 in Scotland",and he continues that the"claim that at least 60% of the total surplus would require to be secured to ensure real parity with the NBC pensioners"is "not a new argument". He states:"Overall, the proportion of surplus which has been or is being distributed … is indeed around 60%."Ministers have also decided that "there will be no change to the basis of distribution for those widowed before 18 December 2000"on the basis that that would move away from"the established principle of utilising the rules of the schemes for payments and would have an effect of decreasing the … sums for the vast majority of recipients."We are still waiting for a response from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the committee's request that he meet the petitioners. I propose that we do not consider what further action, if any, we should take on the petition until we receive the chancellor's response. However, I suggest that, in the interim, we copy the minister's letter to the petitioners and the MSPs who have been closely involved in supporting the petition, for their information. We can then consider the letter formally when we receive a response from the chancellor and agree any appropriate action at that stage. Is that agreed?Members indicated agreement.

No. The matter will be considered formally by the committee at a later stage. The letter has been circulated purely for members' information.