THE law will be changed to protect thousands of former Plessey and Marconi staff in Merseyside whose hard-earned pensions are being "wheeled and dealed", the Government has suggested.

Pensions minister Mike O'Brien yesterday revealed he was investigating giving an independent regulator new powers to impose on trustees who will act for rank-and-file members of a pension scheme.

The move has been prompted by fears that the sale of the Marconi pension scheme to Guernsey-based firm The Pension Corporation will allow any surplus to be snatched by its new owner and sold on.

Around 2,000 Marconi workers are affected, as well as thousands more former workers at the firm, once one of Merseyside's biggest employers at its Edge Lane plant.

Responding to a Commons debate, Mr O'Brien said the Marconi sale had raised the alarm in Whitehall that a flood of similar cases will follow, put-ting scheme members "at great-er risk than they ought to be".

The minister is considering amending the Pensions Bill, before Parliament, to strengthen the powers of the pension regulator, and has asked officials to investigate other measures.

Mr O'Brien said: "Treating pensions as just another commodity to be wheeled and dealed is something we need to approach with caution. The trustees need to know, when they find themselves in difficulty, they are not alone and that the pensions regulator has the capacity to intervene."

Stressing the need to stop pension scheme-owners taking "reckless risks", Mr O'Brien said: "I cannot allow development of a business model that raises concerns like this. We must have a shared aim of ensuring pension promises are kept and that pensioners have security in their retirement."

The strong comments delighted George Howarth, Labour MP for Knowsley North and Sefton East, who sponsored the debate after demanding the Government intervene to stop Marconi pensioners being "exploited".

The Labour backbencher said: "The minister has clearly recognised concerns raised at Marconi and the need to act quickly to fill the gap in regulatory arrangements."

The Daily Post revealed last year that The Pension Corpora-tion last year had offered to buy Telent, a residual company set up following the collapse of Marconi and GPT in the 1990s.

The pension funds cannot be touched for 12 years. After that time, the Corporation would be able to take out any surplus, in a given year, beyond the requirements to fund immediate pensions.

The Government is concerned any schemes that go bust must be bailed out by its pension protec-tion fund (PPF), a levy on solvent pension schemes.

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