HC Deb 10 January 2000 vol 342 c106W
Mr. Andy King

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many claims arising from the mis-selling of pensions are outstanding; and what assessment he has made of the timescale for their resolution; [104314]

(2) how many claims arising from the mis-selling of pensions have been resolved to date; [104315]

(3) how many people have been affected by the mis-selling of pensions in the last 10 years. [104313]

Miss Melanie Johnson

The regulators split the industry's work on the personal pension mis-selling review into two phases. During phase 1 firms were required to address the most urgent cases, where for example pensioners had died, or retired, or were close to retirement. Phase 2—which began in 1999—addresses less urgent cases, mostly younger people.

The mis-selling of personal pensions took place during the period April 1998-June 1994 and the statistics given in this answer cover the mis-selling over that period. It is not practical to provide figures for the period from January 1990. The people affected by personal pension mis-selling are those who were mis-sold a pension and who were subsequently entitled to redress.

The phase 1 review has led to offers of redress to 410,000 people. About 17,000 phase 1 cases are outstanding. This represents about 2 per cent. of all the cases included in the phase 1 review. These are typically difficult cases or cases which have only recently been identified as proper to phase 1. The Financial Services Authority closely monitors the firms responsible for these outstanding phase 1 cases.

The total population to be examined under phase 2 is in excess of 800,000. About 114,000 cases have already been dealt with, and offers of redress have been made in about 90,000 cases. About 700,000 further cases are likely to be dealt with during the rest of the phase 2 review. Not all of these investors will be entitled to redress. The timetable is for all phase 2 case reviews to be completed by June 2002.

It is too soon to say how many investors overall are likely to be offered redress under the two phases of the review.