Mairead McGuinness Fine Gael MEP

You will be aware the UK Government announced a £775 million compensation fund last October and established at the same time an Independent Commission to provide advice on how best to allocate the fund.

On 26 January this year, the Government published the Commission’s advice and accepted the principles of its recommendations for payment.

In light of the publication and the announcement that payments are expected to begin being made from summer this year I wrote to UK Treasury Minister Mark Hoban MP on the matter of the treatment of non-UK policyholders.

In his response Mr Hoban wrote: “The Government takes the Equitable Life issue very seriously and recognises that this is an issue that affects many people not just in the UK but also abroad.

With regard to your specific query, I can confirm that as far as the Government is concerned, there are no substantive differences between policyholders who live in the UK and those who live abroad, or between those who purchased their policies in the UK and those that purchased them abroad. Their losses are included in the calculation for relative losses.

The principles recommended by the Independent Commission on Equitable Life Payments, which the Government has accepted, will apply to non-UK policyholders as far as is practicable.”

I understand that the UK Government is currently finalising the details of its payments scheme, with a view to commencing payments in the summer – possibly August. Full details of the scheme design are expected to be presented to the UK Parliament in the next month or so.