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Equitable Life

I thank all Members for their interesting and passionate contributions to this debate. I think that we are all agreed on one thing—the need to resolve this important issue quickly and fairly. I believe that we have been making good progress. Sir John's recent interim report represents a significant step towards resolving the issue and, as the Chief Secretary said, he will submit his final report in May. As far as possible, the Government are progressing work on scheme design in parallel with Sir John's work. We cannot prejudge Sir John's final advice, and final decisions cannot be made until it has been received and considered. However, I want to reiterate what the Chief Secretary said in his opening speech: we recognise that there is a strong case for the estates of policyholders who have passed away to be included in the scheme; we recognise that it is neither desirable nor administratively feasible to means-test every individual policyholder; and we are able to commit to responding to Sir John Chadwick's final advice within two weeks. I shall now try to cover, as best I can in the time available, some of the points that hon. Members have raised. The hon. Members for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) and for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) referred to EMAG's withdrawal from the Chadwick process. It is regrettable that EMAG has withdrawn from Sir John's work. Sir John is a well-respected former Court of Appeal judge who carries out his work independent of Government, and I do not believe that his integrity is in question. Throughout the process, he has carefully considered representations from all interested parties, including EMAG, and has given equal time and weighting to the views of those parties. That is reflected in his latest interim report, which publishes all the representations that he has received. The independent panel appointed to peer review the work of Sir John's actuaries comprises specialists in their field. They are all highly regarded and were selected on the basis of their professionalism and integrity. Many hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Twickenham, my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, North-East (Mr. Hamilton), and the hon. Members for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) and for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood), asked about interim payments. In order to make interim payments, we would be required to pre-empt Sir John's advice, and we would have to make assumptions about a wide range of factors without having the full extent and analysis of the information required. I believe that it is important that all resources are directed towards ensuring that the final payment scheme is implemented as swiftly as possible, and at this point I do not want to divert resources that may, in turn, lead to delays in that implementation process. However, as the Chief Secretary said, we are investigating the possibility of prioritising payments within the scheme so that groups that have been the most disproportionately impacted would be paid first. My hon. Friends the Members for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble) and for Leeds, North-East, and the hon. Member for St. Albans (Anne Main), who is not in her place, mentioned data cleansing. I would like to confirm that officials are in contact with Equitable Life on the issue of data, and the data cleansing process is part of the work that is being carried out in parallel with Sir John's work. I am confident that data cleansing will not cause delay once Sir John reports. Many Members, including the hon. Members for Angus (Mr. Weir) and for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond), asked when payments will flow. At the moment, it is impossible to tell. At the very least, we will need to know who we are paying and how we are paying, and we will need to consider different delivery options. However, as I said, we are starting preparatory work so that we can move as rapidly as possible when Sir John reports. We have scheme design consultants on board who are developing options, and extensive work by officials has included discussions with Equitable Life and with stakeholder groups. This is potentially one of the largest schemes of its type and, as the Chief Secretary said, history tells us that extensive preparation is needed to get this right; its scale and complexity should not be underestimated.