It is coming up to the first anniversary of Allied Steel and Wire in Cardiff and in Sheerness going bust; hence my keener interest in occupational pensions. I was utterly gobsmacked when I discovered that those workers were originally employed by a nationalised industry - although some were employed by a private steel company - that they were compelled as part of their employment contract to participate in an occupational pension scheme and paid into that scheme for decades but then, when the company went bust at the end of that period, they faced the prospect of losing most - 80 per cent. or more - of their pension. I was gobsmacked that that could be the legal position in this country in the 21st century, but it is.

I welcome today's announcement - I am sure all hon. Members do - that Celsa, the Spanish steel company, has announced that it will reopen the Allied Steel and Wire plant in Cardiff with 400 of the 800 posts; I hope that many of those who previously had jobs there will again be employed. I commend the National Assembly for Wales, the Government and the local council for helping that to happen.

Nevertheless, many of those workers still see the complex issue of pensions in pretty stark and simple terms. They see that if there is a shortfall in the occupational pension scheme for people who are council employees, it is underwritten by the council tax payer. They see Members of Parliament and Members of the National Assembly having extra sums paid into their pension schemes and having their schemes potentially underwritten by the taxpayer. In contrast, how is the loyalty of Allied Steel and Wire workers repaid? Many of those workers will have worked loyally for the company over many years, and did not take early retirement or early redundancy, often because they were the best of the work force? When the company goes under, because the pension scheme and the stock market happen to be at a low ebb, they are left to pay the price and bear the risk.

I welcome the fact that the Government have introduced the Green Paper and that they have been listening on this issue, particularly in the past six months. I want to tell them what I would like to be included in the forthcoming announcement. I want the pension insurance scheme to be introduced, with the Government standing behind it, on the basis of the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, as suggested in press reports in yesterday's Financial Times and elsewhere.

There are those who talk about moral hazard, but that can be overcome. There can be safeguards in such a scheme. For example, a cap can be put on, so that fat-cat pensions do not get paid out of it. It is also possible to have a system whereby 90 per cent. of the pension, say, is met, rather than 100 per cent. Let us forget moral hazard and other theoretical economic arguments; that system would overcome the immoral hazard that workers face when they pay into pension schemes that at the end of the day, through no fault of their own, are not worth the paper they are written on.

We must take care to understand what happened when the United States set up the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in the 1970s, in terms of existing funds that had yet to be wound up. The US made sure that workers who suffered as a result of the wind-up of those schemes after the companies had gone into insolvency were protected. That is what should happen now, and it is not retrospection. There are schemes, such as the Allied Steel and Wire pension scheme, that have yet to be finally wound up. If the Government are going to legislate in this area to create a body like the PBGC, and if such legislation takes time to introduce - I accept that it does - in the meantime the Government should stand behind those schemes and meet at least the majority of obligations in respect of those that have yet to be wound up. That is a quantifiable proposal that could be costed and met. We have a moral obligation to look seriously into doing that, and I should like the Government to say that they will.

I shall wind up now, because time is very short and I want to hear what the Minister has to say. The issue of pensions - particularly occupational pensions, and the question of whose side we are on - is a key test. Are we on the side of the workers or the fat cats, and who carries the risk when companies go bust? In this case it is the workers who have carried the risk. That is morally wrong, and a Labour Government should be, and I hope will be, prepared to do something about it.