Equitable Life (Payments) Bill

Conor Burns Excerpts

Wednesday 10th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Main]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Chris Leslie]

I have given way to the hon. Member for St Albans (Mrs Main) several times, so I shall give way to the hon. Member for Bournemouth West (Conor Burns).

[Conor Burns]

Will the shadow Minister at least concede that one of the biggest groups of victims—some were in my constituency—were those who died while waiting for his Government to make any progress? This Government should at least be congratulated on getting on and doing something, because in this context something is definitely better than the nothing that was offered by the Opposition.

[Chris Leslie]

I am not going to claim that everything in the garden was rosy in the period that elapsed between the findings of the various commissions. Suffice it to say that Penrose spent some two and half years on his inquiry and the ombudsman spent nearly four years on hers. This was not simply a Government issue. There were very complex issues in which a set of decisions had to be resolved. There are perfectly good and sound reasons for some of the time that it took to come to conclusions on these questions. Things could certainly have been handled better; I have already said that this evening.