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Equitable Life

My hon. Friend asks what the time scale will be relative to the ombudsman's scheme. My view is that the ombudsman's own proposals would have taken some time to implement. We will all be aware from examples in our constituencies of different payment schemes or compensation schemes that have taken considerably longer than was originally intended. We are mindful of that and, in the design of the scheme, we need to take it strongly into account. We need to aim to design a scheme that can pay out as swiftly as possible, and that will be part of our considerations. It will also be one of the issues that we will discuss with Sir John Chadwick. My hon. Friend also asked what we will take into account when it comes to considering disproportionate impact. Some policies might have been hit harder than others and have been more heavily affected, and some people will have seen larger losses. The ombudsman said that she was far from concluding that all the complainants had experienced financial loss as a result of the events at Equitable. Policyholders are in a wide range of circumstances and a wide range of impacts have been experienced. It is right that we should take that all into account in designing a fair scheme.