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Administrating the Equitable Life Payment Scheme

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: Stationery Office/Tso

Published: 2013-07-01

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 9780215060891

More than 10 years after the collapse of Equitable Life many victims still have not received the compensation they are entitled to. The Treasury focused on an arbitrary target for making the first payments at the expense of proper planning and this has led to unacceptable delays and spiralling costs. By March 2012 just £168 million had been paid out to policyholders - a third of the £500 million expected. Only 35% of policyholders have received payments despite 72% of the budget being spent. 20% of policyholders - between 200,000 and 236,000 people - might never receive any money at all because the Treasury believes it may be unable to trace them. With less than a year to go before the scheme closes in March 2014, the Treasury still has 664,200 payments worth £370 million left to make. Treasury and its administrator, NS&I should do everything possible to find missing policyholders. Unbelievably, Treasury refused to accept the details of 350,000 policyholders from the Equitable Life Members Action Group on the basis of 'data protection issues'. Furthermore the Treasury does not intend to start publicizing the closure of the scheme until September. It should do so now. The service provided to policyholders has also been unacceptably poor. Many have not received the information to understand how their payments have been calculated. NS&I must take action to improve the customer service provided by the contractor, ATOS. Lessons should have been learned from the failure of previous government compensation schemes, such as those for former miners and Icelandic trawlermen

Administrating the Equitable Life Payment Scheme

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-04-24

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9780102981360

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The speed with which the Treasury had to set up a scheme to make payments to former policyholders of Equitable Life impeded its ability to design one which worked efficiently and effectively, according to the National Audit Office. The data for making payments was old and incomplete and many practical issues had to be overcome including having to trace over one million people and confirm their identity. As there is still a large number of payments to be made, the Scheme runs the risk of failing to meet payment targets and overrunning on costs. The NAO recognizes that the Treasury was given a difficult challenge in setting up the payment Scheme. It had to set up a complex operation in a short period of time so that the first payments could be made by June 2011. But not enough preparation work was done before the Scheme went live. It was initially planned that £500 million should have been paid out by the end of 2011-12. This target was not met. By March 2013, the Scheme had made 407,000 payments, totalling £577 million. The Scheme has made only 35 per cent of its total payments and spent 72 per cent of its original administration budget. The Scheme's objective of paying all traced former policyholders by the end of March 2014 is at risk. The Treasury plans to close the Scheme in April 2014 having made all the payments to Investors and Groups, and the first two annual payments to those who held an annuity. However, a large number of payments remain to be made in the final year of the scheme.

Equitable Life

Author: Great Britain: H.M. Treasury

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-10-21

Total Pages: 16

ISBN-13: 9780101796026

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Dated October 2010. Response to HC 485 (ISBN 9780215554888)

Unlocking Constitutional and Administrative Law

Author: Mark Ryan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-05-16

Total Pages: 716

ISBN-13: 1134648839

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Constitutional and administrative law (Public law) is an essential element of all law degrees. UNLOCKING CONSTITUTIONAL & ADMINISTRATIVE LAW will ensure that you grasp the main concepts with ease, providing you with an indispensable foundation in the subject. This revised third edition is fully up-to-date with the latest key changes in the law. The UNLOCKING THE LAW series is designed specifically to make the law accessible. Each chapter contains: aims and objectives, activities such as self-test questions, key facts charts to consolidate your knowledge diagrams to aid memory and understanding prominently displayed cases and judgments chapter summaries a glossary of legal terminology essay questions with answer plans. The series covers all the core subjects required by the Bar Council and the Law Society for entry onto professional qualifications as well as popular option units. The website www.unlockingthelaw.co.uk provides free resources such as multiple choice questions and updates to the law.

Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 616

ISBN-13:

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HC 1060 - The Ministry of Defence Rquipment Plan 2013-23 and Major Projects Report 2013

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2014-05-13

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 0215072030

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There are still concerns over whether the MoD's Equipment Plan is affordable. The Ministry underspent by a huge £1.2 billion on the Equipment Plan in 2012-13. Yet it has no idea whether this is because of genuine savings or whether costs are simply being stored up for later years because of delays on projects. This underspending makes it tempting for the Treasury to take them as savings at the expense of the defence equipment capabilities our armed services need. The MoD also does not properly understand the costs of maintenance and technical support, despite the fact that such support costs, £87 billion over ten years, and accounts for over half of the spend on the Equipment Plan budget. It also does not know whether its contingency of £4.7 billion is a sufficient buffer against risks to the Plan. The affordability of the Equipment Plan is heavily reliant on achieving significant savings in some of its major programmes. For example, the MoD has assumed savings of over £2 billion in two large programmes, the Complex Weapons and Submarine Enterprise Performance Programmes, but achieving these will be a challenge. Any changes to these two programmes could jeopardise the expected savings and so put affordability at risk. Project teams do not yet have enough staff with the right skills to employ proper cost and risk management techniques. Treasury and Cabinet Office should look across Government at skills shortages and go for solutions that do not require bureaucratic reorganisations to recruit skilled people at market rates.

House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: Emergency Admissions to Hospital - HC 885

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2014-03-04

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780215068873

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Nearly one fifth of consultant posts in emergency departments were either vacant or filled by locums in 2012. Neither the Department nor NHS England have a clear strategy to tackle the shortage of A&E consultants and there is too much reliance on temporary staff to fill gaps. The Committee raised the possibility of paying consultants more to work at struggling hospitals. Greater use in A&E of consultants from other departments could also be made, or mandate that all trainee consultants spend time in A&E, or make A&E positions more attractive through improved terms and conditions. The slow introduction of round-the-clock consultant cover in hospitals - which will not be in place before the end of 2016-17 - is also having a negative impact. More people die as a result of being admitted at the weekend when fewer consultants are in A&E. Changing this relies on the British Medical Association and NHS Employers negotiating a more flexible consultants' contract, and neither the Department nor NHS England has direct control over the timescale or details of these negotiations. Hospitals, GPs and community health services all have a role to play in reducing emergency admissions - but financial incentives to make this happen are not in place. While hospitals get no money if patients are readmitted within 30 days, there are no financial incentives for community and social care services to reduce emergency admissions. Both the Department of Health and NHS England struggled to explain to us who is ultimately accountable for the efficient delivery of local A&E services

HC 1110 - Promoting Electronic Growth Locally

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2014-05-16

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 021507274X

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Despite the large sums available for promoting economic growth locally, little money has actually reached businesses. Of the £3.9 billion that has been allocated in total to these initiatives, only nearly £400 million had made it to local projects by the end of 2012-13. Under the Regional Growth Fund, the largest of the schemes, the Departments will need to spend £1.4 billion this year, compared to the £1.2 billion spent over the previous three years. Some £1 billion of the remaining £3.5 billion allocated to initiatives is currently parked with intermediary bodies such as local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and banks - and the rest with the Departments. The Departments should introduce binding milestones for distributing funds and move quickly to claw back money not being spent - or spent disproportionately on administration - and redistribute it to better performers. Progress in creating jobs is falling well short of the Departments' initial expectations. The Departments' estimate of the cost per job created has also risen from £30,400 in Round One to £52,300 in Round Four - a 72% increase. The Departments also agreed that there is a risk of double-counting, with the same jobs scored more than once to different initiatives. The local growth initiatives have not been managed as a coordinated programme with a common strategy, objectives or plan. The recent creation by the Departments of a single growth directorate and a programme board is welcomed. Concern remains however that the Departments are not yet using the new oversight arrangements effectively.

Politics and Governance in the UK

Author: Michael Moran

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-10-13

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1137365986

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The third edition of this comprehensive and innovative textbook provides an invaluable narrative and insight into the ever-changing landscape of British politics. Updated to cover the 2015 General Election, the Scottish independence referendum and changing relations with the European Union, this extensively revised new edition sets out to provide students with a clear understanding of the core features of British politics and contemporary governance, as well as an examination of the way in which the governing process is becoming increasingly 'multi-level' and 'multi-agency'. Written in a concise and accessible style by one of the leading authors in the field, this engaging text provides an illuminating framework that draws on the range of analytical issues and theoretical debates in the study of British politics. Through Moran's unrivalled account of the way Britain is governed, it is clear to see why this text continues to be essential reading for undergraduate students of British politics. New to this Edition: - Continued discussion on the influence of EU membership on British politics A distinct emphasis on the rising importance of management in the system of government - New 2017 update covers both the 2016 EU Referendum and the 2017 General Election, as well as their repercussions for British politics.

House of Commons - Committee of Public Accounts: HM Revenue & Customs: Progress in Tackling Tobacco Smuggling - HC 297

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780215062499

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Tobacco smuggling represents a significant risk to revenues. It undermines initiatives to reduce smoking and it is linked to the activities of organised criminal gangs. HMRC estimates that duty not paid on tobacco smoked in the UK in 2010-11 resulted in revenue losses of around £1.9 billion. Some 9% of cigarettes and 38% of hand-rolling tobacco sold in the UK are estimated to be illicit, yet there were only 265 prosecutions for tobacco smuggling in 2012-13. HMRC's 2010 Spending Review settlement included £25 million over four years to invest in new initiatives to tackle tobacco smuggling. However HMRC was also required to find efficiency savings so total spending on HMRC's tobacco strategy in 2011-12 rose by only £3 million to £68.9 million and fell to £67.4 million in 2012-13. By the end of 2012-13, three of the five Spending Review-funded projects had yielded nothing and the Committee is not convinced that the Spending Review projects will deliver the £900 million benefit, in terms of revenue loss prevented, that HMRC now predicts they will achieve by March 2015. The Department has also failed to challenge UK tobacco manufacturers who turn a blind eye to the avoidance of UK tax by supplying more of their products to European countries than the legitimate market in those countries could possibly require. The tobacco then finds its way back into the UK market without tax being paid. The supply of some brands of hand-rolling tobacco to some countries in 2011 exceeded legitimate demand by 240%.