Dear Prime Minister,
As you will be aware, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Anne Abraham, yesterday laid a second report on Equitable Life before Parliament under section 10 (3) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman has described the Government’s response to her 2008 report ‘Equitable Life: a decade of regulatory failure’ as “deeply disappointing”, and has stated explicitly that the injustices highlighted in her original report will not be remedied by this Government’s response.
Because of this the Parliamentary Ombudsman has taken the extraordinary decision to publish a second report under section 10 (3) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967. Section 10 (3) provides the Ombudsman with the right of reply when the response of the Government will clearly not remedy the injustices originally highlighted by the Ombudsman’s original report. The fact that this mechanism has only been used four times since the establishment of the Parliamentary Ombudsman 42 years ago underscores just how inadequate the Government’s response on Equitable Life has been.
This Government has consistently failed to face up to the suffering caused by the regulatory failure of Equitable Life, and it is as a direct result of this new report by the Parliamentary Ombudsman that I write to you today in my capacity as co-Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders to ask that a Minister of the Crown come urgently to the House to make a statement on this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Kawczynski MP
