APPENDIX
Letter from Chair of the Committee to
Mark Hoban MP, Financial Secretary, HM Treasury, 10 September
2010
EQUITABLE LIFE
I wrote to you on 30 July following your statement
to the House on 22 July and the Ombudsman's letter to colleagues
of 26 July in which she concluded that Sir John Chadwick's proposals
seemed to her to be an "unsafe and unsound basis on which
to proceed".
As I said in my letter, our predecessor Committee
took a very close interest in this matter and shared her apprehension
about the way in which the previous Government had responded to
her recommendations.
I understand that you have been meeting with
the main interested parties in advance of the Second Reading debate
of the Equitable Life (Payments) Bill. As you are well aware there
is also much concern among colleagues in the House on behalf of
those of their constituents who have been adversely affected by
the events surrounding Equitable Life.
It would help Members, in advance of the announcements
in the Spending Review next month, and no doubt having heard views
from colleagues at Second Reading, if you could come before the
Committee and explain the approach you have been considering with
regard to fulfilling your commitment to implement the Ombudsman's
recommendations and to make fair and transparent payments to Equitable
Life policyholders.
It would be helpful too if, in advance of that
session you could set out that approach to us in writing, in particular
the differences between the Ombudsman's recommendations and Sir
John Chadwick's recommendations, and how you intend to reconcile
these differences.
The Clerk of the Committee will be in touch
with your office shortly with a formal invitation for early October.
I am also writing to Ann Abraham and to Sir
John Chadwick with a similar invitation.
| 
