Two non-executive directors (NEDs) – one at Royal London and the other at Markel International – served as special advisers to the Treasury Select Committee’s inquiry into insurance regulation. Now the independence of the final report, which did not mention the directors’ involvement and interests, is facing scrutiny.
“A detailed and wide-ranging report into insurance regulation by the Treasury Select Committee has called for an overhaul of the UK implementation of Solvency II, the prudential regulatory regime for insurance,” the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said in October when the report was published. “It also calls for HM Treasury to review the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA’s) objectives to include a primary competition objective.”
Welcoming the “important report which urges sensible reform,” ABI director general Huw Evans at the time cited the committee’s “detailed focus on pragmatic improvements.”
While the NEDs’ role in the inquiry and their interests were published in formal minutes released in September, the committee is now being quizzed over the nondisclosure in the final report. The Times said the potential conflicts of interest were brought to light by a Freedom of Information Act request.
“It’s standard practice for committee reports to include committee staff, including those on secondment, but not specialist advisers, which is published in the formal minutes,” the publication quoted a spokesperson as saying. When the insurance regulation report’s independence was questioned there was no comment.
Royal London’s Ian Dilks and Markel International’s Ian Marshall were the two industry veterans who took part in the parliamentary inquiry.
