The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, has noted the statement to Parliament made today by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on next steps on the Equitable Life affair. She has also now been provided with a copy of the final advice that Sir John Chadwick, commissioned by the previous Government, has submitted to the Treasury.
While the Ombudsman would welcome the delivery of justice to those affected by the Equitable Life affair in a speedy, simple and transparent manner, it is not clear from the material presented to Parliament today whether such justice will be delivered.
Once the Ombudsman has had time to consider the material presented to Parliament today, she will inform Parliament of her views.
...Ends
Download the press release 
(67kb)
Notes for Editors
- In July 2008, the Parliamentary Ombudsman published a report on her investigation into the prudential regulation of Equitable Life during the period prior to 1 December 2001, Equitable Life: a decade of Regulatory Failure. In this report she identified ‘serial regulatory failure’ constituting maladministration and resulting in injustice in the form of relative financial loss for policyholders of the collapsed Equitable Life pension’s scheme. She recommended that policy holders were compensated for their relative loss through an independent payment scheme. This report is available on the Ombudsman’s website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
- In May 2009, following two reports by the Public Administration Select Committee backing her recommendations, the Parliamentary Ombudsman took the exceptional step of laying before Parliament a follow up report, Injustice unremedied: the Government’s response on Equitable Life. This highlighted that the Government’s proposals did not go far enough to address the injustice suffered by Equitable Life policy holders. This report is available on the Ombudsman’s website: www.ombudsman.org.uk
- Sir John Chadwick’s report is available here: http://www.chadwick-office.org
- Ann Abraham holds the post of UK Parliamentary Ombudsman and is also Health Service Ombudsman for England. She is appointed by the Crown and is completely independent of government and the NHS. Her role is to provide a service to the public by undertaking independent investigations into complaints that government departments, a range of other public bodies in the UK, and the NHS in England, have not acted properly or fairly or have provided a poor service. There is no charge for using the Ombudsman’s services.
- For other media enquiries please contact the PHSO Press Office on 0300 061 4996.
