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Equitable Life

I cannot give the hon. Gentleman a specific timetable for the payment, and I would not want to mislead him. We have asked for the information from Sir John Chadwick, and we must also undertake additional work on the practical issues. I would not want to give people misleading information, and I am trying to be straight with them about the fact that we simply do not know how long it will take. However, we accept the important points that people have made about the need to implement this as fast as possible, bearing in mind the points that my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen, South (Miss Begg) made about the need to make sure that it is fair, too.