---

Equitable Life

I shall speak for much less than 15 minutes; indeed, I had not anticipated speaking at all, but I rise simply to say that I regard the matter—this will not go down well in Whips’ quarters—as a House matter. When our ombudsman—the parliamentary ombudsman—makes a report to the House and says that injustice resulting from maladministration has not been remedied, and when she is then moved to make a special report to the House, which has happened on only four previous occasions in the history of the office of ombudsman since 1967, she is entitled to ask the House to take a view. All she can do is report to the House and ask it to take a view on whether her reading of matters or the Government’s is to be preferred. It is extremely unfortunate that we do not have a mechanism that gives the House collectively—I would hope on a free vote, because it is a House matter—the ability to determine the issue. We have not had a chance to do that. It is in some ways unfortunate, but perhaps necessary, that the only mechanism that has been found is an Opposition party motion on an Opposition day. From the point of view of the House and the ombudsman, it would be much better if there was a mechanism by which we could test the House’s opinion, in a genuinely independent way, on whether it wanted to accept what an ombudsman had said in such special circumstances. In the conclusion of her latest and special report to the House, the ombudsman states:""In this case, I am satisfied that the injustice I found in my report to have resulted from maladministration on the part of the public bodies responsible for the prudential regulation of the Society has not so far been remedied. I am also satisfied, for the reasons I have given above, that it will not be so remedied whatever the outcome of the work yet to be done by Sir John Chadwick…I consider that it is appropriate to draw this to Parliament’s attention, given the scale of the injustice I have found and the nature of the Government’s response—which means that this injustice will not appropriately be remedied.""