Equitable Life (Payments) Bill

Debate between Mike Weir and Mark Hoban

Wednesday 10th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

The hon. Gentleman makes an assumption that the scheme is open-ended, but it is designed to compensate policyholders who invested in Equitable Life from 1 September 1992. With regard to the implications of that, I shall respond to the intervention by my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff North (Jonathan Evans).

[Mr Weir]

Will the Minister explain further, as I do not quite understand? He seems to be saying that only those who became aware of a regulatory failure in 1992 are affected. However, am I not right in thinking that that suggests that the regulatory failure goes back prior to 1992, and would have affected people then, although they would not have been aware of it? Are those people not entitled to compensation?

[Mr Hoban]

The ombudsman is concerned about people who invested in Equitable Life who might not have done so had they been aware of that regulatory failure. That regulatory failure would not have been known to them until September 1992, so there is a clear, rational argument for 1 September 1992 being the right date to start the calculation of losses.

Equitable Life (Payments) Bill

Debate between Mike Weir and Mark Hoban

Tuesday 14th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. Speed is of the essence, and we want to make sure that payments start to be made as quickly as possible. There is quite a lot of work to be done before we get to that point; I will say a bit about that work later on.

[Mr Mike Weir (Angus) (SNP)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Weir]

We cannot object to anything in the Bill, but the detail on quantum is not in it. Does the Minister intend to provide details on the scheme to the House so that we can debate it before it is introduced?

[Mr Hoban]

I shall come to that in a minute, but the Bill simply gives the Treasury the powers to make the payments. It is right that the Treasury takes those powers, but it needs to do so now so that we can move on to the procurement process and identify who will make the payments.