SOLIHULL EQUITABLE LIFE POLICY HOLDERS ASK FOR SUPPORT

10.08.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 27th Aug 2008

Current and former Equitable Life members have been contacting Lorely Burt MP asking for their support for compensation following the EU and Parliamentary Ombudsman's recommendations that the regulatory authorities were appallingly negligent over many years.

Mrs Burt has written to all the Equitable Life members that have contacted her.

Lorely commented:

"The two most recent reports on the Equitable Life scandal by the Parliamentary Ombudsman and by the European Parliament make very disturbing reading.

"It's crystal clear that many Equitable Life policy holders lost money as a direct consequence of government regulators failing to keep close enough scrutiny of the company and act on the risks and problems that they had, or should have, identified.

"There's been a complete and repeated failure of regulation spanning more than a decade. The outrage expressed by policyholders over this 'serial regulatory failure' is entirely justified. The maladministration has been appalling and they fully deserve fair compensation. The Government needs to accept the Ombudsman's recommendation that 'wrongs should be remedied' and act on it."