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Equitable Life

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. Everything that we do has the potential to create a precedent. I and, I suspect, many other hon. Members would like the ombudsman’s role to be accepted and strengthened, rather than weakened dramatically. I want quickly to raise a second issue. What, for most of my constituents, goes to the heart of the matter is the issue of "disproportionate impact", which is to be the principle for compensation payments. In June 2009, Sir John Chadwick, who was asked to consult on this matter, used the following phrase:""I am satisfied that the Terms of Reference"—" his terms of reference—""do not require me to engage in any form of means-testing in relation to individual policyholders."" What we have heard from Treasury Ministers today seems to conflict with that statement. Therefore, I hope finally to hear in the winding-up speech a definition of "disproportionate impact". I certainly do not want to argue against a principle if the Government have already abandoned it, but it did not sound to me, from the Chief Secretary’s opening speech, that they have.