Treasury and Work and Pensions

I totally disagree. The money lost is not the responsibility of the Government. There are some questions about the Government’s responsibility for allowing the company to continue to trade when it was clearly not even able to maintain its membership of the association that would have guaranteed people’s money. The horse bolted down the road while the Financial Services Authority’s stableman was asleep at the door. The FSA is great at introducing regulations after a crisis has occurred. The scandal would not have happened if the Conservative Government had not abolished section 332 of the Companies Act 1948, which would have prevented the company from being able to trade—[Interruption.] Hon. Members can look it up. If that provision had not been removed, the company would not have been able to trade. Rather than appointing Brian Pomeroy, the chair of the financial inclusion task force, to consider why people use such savings clubs, we should appoint Suzy Hall, who is recognised as the spokesperson and organiser of the Unfairpak.co.uk campaign. She spoke at a meeting in Falkirk on Sunday, organised by the council, which I attended. The most pressing issue is helping the Farepak victims. The suggestion by Findel plc, which bought out Farepak and Kleeneze, is that all the top 350 companies in Britain should give £50,000, which would put £17.5 million into the fund. Opposition Members who have some influence should talk to some of their friends in the City about that. Every assistance should also be given to the inquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry. We should also have an urgent inquiry by the Treasury Committee into EHR, Farepak and Kleeneze and their banking arrangements. That inquiry should subpoena and question on camera Hugh McMillan, the head of credit risk at HBOS, Alistair Webster, the main executive, Eddie Morrison, who is responsible for relationship banking, and Peter Cummings, to whom they all report. They should be asked what happened to the money that Farepak savers put in. I put that question to Mr. O’Riordan from the bank when I met him. I asked whether that money went through EHR to keep Kleeneze running so that it could be sold off as a going concern and the money returned to HBOS. Those people must answer those questions before a Select Committee.