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Proceeding contribution from Adam Price (Plaid Cymru) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 7 November 2006. It occurred during Adjournment debate on Farepak.


Farepak

I take the Minister’s point, but if VAT has been paid, clearly the Minister will want to consider hon. Members’ comments in that respect. On what can be done in the future, we look forward to hearing what stage the Minister’s discussions with the Financial Services Authority have reached. Farepak is not the first case of a Christmas hamper voucher company getting into difficulties. There was the case of FHSC in February, and Choice Gift Vouchers went into bankruptcy earlier this year. We need to know what can be done now, given that several companies have had difficulties. We look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say about how quickly secondary legislation can be introduced under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to add such companies to the list of those that are regulated. Several hon. Members have rightly mentioned HBOS. One of the key questions that we need answers to is why the offer from Park to buy Farepak was rejected twice. Park is the company that rescued FHSC and that prevented its customers from getting into the same problems as Farepak’s customers. What was the role of HBOS in preventing that rescue offer from being accepted?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
451 c197WH 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Subjects
Companies Closures Personal savings Farepak Halifax Bank of Scotland
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk