In the debate which took place in the House of Commons on 12 December 1991 Hind stated, "I have two major concerns. The first is the long-term need to protect pension fund contributors, and the second, which has worked as a catalyst, is the appropriation from the Daily Mirror and Maxwell Communication Corporation pension fund, of between £300 and £500 million by the major shareholder, the recently deceased Mr. Robert Maxwell. That in itself points to the need for closer consideration of the matter and probably for reform. Earlier today, in support of this debate, I introduced a Bill to provide a framework of protection for contributors to and beneficiaries of pension funds. In future, large occupational pension funds will be a major source of British wealth. It is not without significance that we have obliged the public to contribute to pension funds to provide for their old age. We must also provide a framework which will protect them and ensure that those funds are available to benefit them when the time comes. As the population ages, pension funds will become more significant as support for large numbers of workers in their old age and will play an important part in investment in the economy. We need only look around the City and at company reports to see the importance of pension funds as a form of investment in our major companies and in the economy. First, I want to address the problems of Mirror Group Newspapers and the Maxwell Communication Corporation. This debacle—that is the only word to describe it—must under no circumstances be allowed to happen again. That, as much as anything, is what this debate is about." He continued after allowing an intervention, "Mr. Robert Maxwell, a former Labour Member of Parliament, was the subject of an inquiry in respect of his company, Pergamon Press. The inspector's report said of him: This man should never be allowed to control a public company. 1070 How right that inspector was. How foolish we were not to take due note of that incisive comment, by a man who read Mr. Maxwell's character extremely well." He further continued, "Robert Maxwell helped himself to the Mirror pension fund. While professional journalists—rightly, in my view—investigated the financial misdeeds of others, Maxwell had his hand in their pocket and robbed them blind. That was not all. A more serious aspect is that, after Robert Maxwell's death, we are led to believe by the newspapers that a further £300 million went missing from the group's various pension funds, which suggests that such activities went deeper than just one man, and that others were involved.