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Equitable Life

As I have said, we will take account of Sir John's advice, the relative losses experienced, how far the responsibility is fairly apportioned between the regulatory bodies, the society and others, and the public finances. As the ombudsman has said, it is right to do that, because in effect we are talking about taking account of the interests of taxpayers; it is fair to do so. The shadow Chancellor has said that any payment scheme"““must be consistent with sound public finances””." His party has a rather different view from ours about what should happen to the public finances over the next few years, so his party's assessment of that may be different from ours.